About

Haleh Agar is a novelist, short story writer and an award-winning essayist. Her short story ‘Not Contagious’ was Highly Commended by the 2019 Costa Short Story Award. She won the Brighton Prize for a piece of flash fiction, and her narrative essay ‘On Writing Ethnic Stories’ won The London Magazine’s inaugural essay competition. Haleh has run writing workshops and spoken at literary events such as the London Library. She was part of the judging panel for The London Magazine’s 2021 short story prize, has judged Aesthetica magazine's 2022 short story competition, and was on the 2023 Jhalak Prize judging panel- a national book prize. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. Her novel-in-progress, 'Coo' has received the 2024 Literature Matters award from the Royal Society of Literature. This satirical re-imagining of 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' is set in the context of the 1953 coup in Iran and explores western intervention in Middle Eastern geopolitics.