Tahereh Mafi
Tahereh Mafi
b. November 9, 1988 · From United States- Books
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About
An Iranian-American author of young adult and middle-grade fiction, Tahereh Mafi was born on November 9, 1988, in Connecticut, the youngest of five children of immigrant parents from Iran. She grew up in Northern California and later Orange County, and studied at Soka University of America.
Before publishing her debut, she wrote several practice manuscripts to teach herself how novels are built.
She is best known for the Shatter Me series, which began with Shatter Me in 2011 and grew into multiple sequels and novellas; the early books are written in a fractured, stream-of-consciousness style that uses visible strikethrough text to render the narrator's disordered state of mind, with the crossed-out lines easing as the character stabilizes.
Her output now spans dystopian science fiction, the middle-grade Furthermore and Whichwood, the contemporary novels A Very Large Expanse of Sea and An Emotion of Great Delight, and the Persian-mythology-inspired fantasy series This Woven Kingdom.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea, which draws on her own experience as a Muslim teenager, was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Her work has sold millions of copies and been translated into more than thirty languages.
She lives in Southern California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs, who wrote the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series, and their daughter.
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Young Adult Romance Fantasy Dystopian Fiction
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Frequently asked questions
Mafi is the daughter of Iranian immigrants and was the youngest of five children, with four older brothers. Her contemporary novel A Very Large Expanse of Sea draws on her own experience as a Muslim teenager in America, and her fantasy series This Woven Kingdom is inspired by Persian mythology. Her heritage informs both her own-voices contemporary fiction and her fantasy world-building.
The strikethrough text visually represents the chaotic, intrusive thoughts of narrator Juliette, who has been isolated and struggles to separate what she thinks from what she says. As Juliette grows stronger over the course of the series, the strikethroughs lessen and her clearer voice takes over. The technique pairs with a fragmented, stream-of-consciousness style.
Yes. Mafi married author Ransom Riggs in 2013, after the two met at a writers' retreat. Riggs wrote the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series. They live in Southern California with their daughter.
Her work spans dystopian science fiction in the Shatter Me series, middle-grade fantasy in Furthermore and Whichwood, contemporary realistic fiction in A Very Large Expanse of Sea and An Emotion of Great Delight, and high fantasy in the This Woven Kingdom series. She has moved between these modes rather than staying in one.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Mafi describes herself as a National Book Award-nominated author. Several of her other titles have also received Goodreads Choice Award nominations.
No. Mafi has said she never took a creative writing class and wrote several practice manuscripts to teach herself how to build a novel before Shatter Me. Her main advice to aspiring writers is to read widely and read everything.
Her official website is taherehmafi.com, which links to her Instagram. She is also active on X (Twitter) at @TaherehMafi and maintains a Goodreads author profile.
The core trilogy runs Shatter Me, Unravel Me, and Ignite Me, followed by the second arc of Restore Me, Defy Me, and Imagine Me. Several companion novellas (such as Destroy Me and Fracture Me) sit between the main books. The This Woven Kingdom series is separate and unrelated.