Navied Mahdavian has been a contributing cartoonist to The New Yorker since 2018, where his cartoons, comics, and illustrations appear regularly. He is the author of the graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America (2023). His work has also been featured in the LA Times, Reader's Digest, Wired, Alta Online, and in the cartoon collections, The Rejection Collection (2022) and Send Help! (2021). He has received fellowships from MacDowell and La Napoule Art Foundation, among other places. He has spoken on panels at SXSW and the Portland Book Festival and has told a story to 1200 people at The Moth Mainstage. Before becoming a cartoonist, he taught the 5th grade where he learned most of his jokes.
He holds a Masters in Education from Stanford University (2012) and received his B.A. from the University of Miami (2008) where he studied philosophy and classics. He also has taught workshops on the graphic novel at NYU and Interlochen.
In 2019, Navied moved to Salt Lake City with his wife, Emelie, a Sundance, Peabody, and Emmy award-winning filmmaker, and their daughter, Elika, who has yet to win any awards.
Work
“Learning Farsi Like an American,” The New Yorker
“Family Traditions and Acquired Tastes,” The LA Times
Bibliography
This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America, Chronicle (2023)
Links
Review, “A couple tried homesteading in Trump country. They didn’t last long,” Washington Post (Sept. 15, 2023)
“We’re Having a Cowboy Moment,” New York Times (Aug. 25, 2023)
“Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America,” Orion Magazine
“New Yorker cartoonist, based in Salt Lake City, writes a graphic memoir of life in ‘This Country,” The Salt Lake Tribune (Sep. 11, 2023)
“All Of It,” WNYC (Aug. 23, 2023)
Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
Kirkus, Starred Review (July 1, 2023)
“Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America,” RadioWest, KUER (Sept. 28, 2023)
'This Country' with Navied Mahdavian on Wednesday's Access Utah (Sept. 26, 2023)
Podcast: Chai and Conversation (Sept. 14th, 2023)
Podcast: Ethnically Ambiguous (August 28th, 2023)
Video: “The Comedian and Writer Jiji Lee Tries to Keep Up With a New Yorker cartoonist,” The New Yorker (Jun 17, 2022)
