Qais Akbar Omar

Qais Akbar Omar manages his family's carpet business in Kabul and writes books. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado. He has studied business at Brandeis University and is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Boston University. He is a recipient of the Scholars at Risk Fellowship from Harvard University. Omar has lectured on Afghan carpets in Afghanistan, Europe, and the United States. His memoir, A Fort of Nine Towers, describes his life growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, during which he became an interpreter for Coalition soldiers. He is the coauthor, with Stephen Landrigan, of Shakespeare in Kabul.