Harry Bennett Branch Local Author Series: Afarin Ordubadi Bellisario

Meet Afarin Ordubadi Bellisario, author of Silenced Whispers, an award-winning historical fiction novel set in early 20th-century Iran that explores the country’s radical social transformation and the pivotal role of women during modernization. 

An MIT-educated technologist turned novelist, Bellisario speaks widely at libraries and institutions, including MIT and venues across Maine and Massachusetts, on the Iranian Revolution, its deep historical roots, and how these themes shape her fiction. 

Silenced Whispers won the Independent Publishers of New England Silver Medal for Genre Fiction and received an honorable mention at the New York Book Festival. Dr. Bellisario has also been featured on Voice of America, top-ranked podcasts, and in publications such as Sloan School and Wellesley/Weston Magazine.

Book sale and signing to follow.

Registration required.

Afarin Ordubadi Bellisario was born and raised in Tehran into a family with its feet in the past and its head in the future. She was educated and built a tech career in the United States, though her passion has always been writing. Bellisario began writing in pre-revolutionary Iran. Her non-technical publications in the U.S. include Movies with My Aunt, Love and Pomegranate, and many op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe.

Today, she writes, mentors startup ventures (over 300 and counting), and teaches. She loves to travel, plays piano, and is a board member of the Cambridge Chamber Ensemble. Her publications can be found on Medium and Substack. She is currently working on a novel about the Iranian revolution, as well as a sequel to Silenced Whispers.