The Norwich University Writers Series is pleased to present Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American, on Tuesday, March 30th, 2021, 7:00 p.m. EDT, in a virtual event sponsored by the NU Writers Series, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of English and Communications. The event is free but requires registration at this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zp0ogYKHQdGk053ToWmhCA

Abdi Nor Iftin is the author of Call Me American, a memoir of his survival of civil war in his native Somalia and journey to a new life in the United States. Born in Mogadishu to nomadic parents, he survived famine, war, and child soldiering. Thanks to the movies available to him, he taught himself English by watching American action films. By repeating and imitating the carefree actors, he earned himself the nickname "Abdi American". Through guerrilla journalism, Abdi dispatched stories about his life to a series titled Messages from Mogadishu on American Public Media. His stories were short listed for Peabody Awards in 2016. These stories were later picked by NPR, the BBC, and This America.

After surviving a bombing at his house one evening in 2009, Abdi finally said goodbye to his home country and moved to Kenya where he and his brother lived as refugees. In an amazing stroke of luck, he won entrance to the U.S. in August 2014, in the annual visa lottery, though his route to America—ending in a harrowing sequence of events that nearly stranded him in Nairobi—did not come easily. In January 2020, he became a U.S. citizen.

Call Me American was widely praised upon publication, called an "extraordinary saga" by Publisher's Weekly, a "searing memoir…that impressively remains upbeat, highly inspiring" by Kirkus Reviews, and "riveting" by The New Yorker.

Now based in Maine, Abdi has been featured on CNN and NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. He is an advocate for refugee and immigrant rights and is dedicated to bringing people together through his stories of survival and resilience. He is currently working on a documentary based on Call Me American.