While Khaled Hosseini (hoh-SAY-nee) is best known for his long fiction, he has written articles for national publications including The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. His editorial in defense of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, an Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for distributing information that questions Islamic laws, is the most notable of his writings in nonfiction.

Published in more than forty languages, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner has received widespread acclaim from critics and the general public. Awards for the book include the San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year for 2003, the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award in 2004, and the American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life Award in 2005. The novel was adapted for the cinema and released in 2007. A Thousand Splendid Suns appeared on many best-seller lists, won a Galaxy British Book Awards—the Richard & Judy Award for Best Read of the Year—and a Book Sense Book of the Year Award in 2008 from the American Booksellers Association.

Hosseini has been honored both for his writing and humanitarian work. In 2006, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees named him its humanitarian of the year. In addition, Time magazine included Hosseini in its 2008 list of the most influential people. Former American first lady Laura Bush, an advocate for Afghan women, wrote the Time entry about Hosseini and his work.