Join us in the shop as writer, documentary producer, and cross-cultural Middle East consultant Terence Ward reads from his account of his family’s travels to the Middle East in Searching for Hassan.
About the Book
Growing up in Tehran in the 1960s, Terence Ward and his brothers were watched over by Hassan, the family’s cook, housekeeper, and cultural guide. After an absence of thirty years and much turmoil in Iran, Ward embarks on a quixotic pilgrimage with his family in search of their lost friend. He has vanished. As they set out on this improbable odyssey, all they have is a small black-and-white photograph taken decades before.
Crossing the vast landscape of ancient Persia, Ward recounts its incredibly rich past while exploring modern Iran’s deep conflicts with its Arab neighbors and our current administration. The story puts a human face on the Iranian people with this inspirational quest of an American family who came to love and admire the extraordinary culture of Iran. The journey answers the question “How far would you go for a friend?”
About the Author
Terence Ward is a writer, documentary producer, and cross-cultural consultant on the Middle East. For 25 years, he has advised companies, foundations and governments. Born in Boulder, Colorado, he grew up in Saudi Arabia and Iran. He received his BA in political science at the University of California at Berkeley. Continuing his studies in Egypt at the American University of Cairo, he specialized in Near Eastern history and contemporary Islamic political movements. Later, he received his MBA from the International Management Institute (IMI) in Geneva.
In Athens, Greece, he joined Middle East Industrial Relations Counselors (MEIRC). For ten years, he advised clients across the Gulf—Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia—conducting consulting projects and management seminars designed for Western and Japanese managers to help them adapt to the complex cultural, historic, and religious issues of the region. In New York, he has worked for Hay Management Consultants and Inter-Change Consultants, specializing in training managers in cultural competencies for the global arena.
He received the International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA) in Geneva, and then served with the UN Mission to East Timor during the referendum for independence in 1999. Later, he served with the Burma Project (Open Society Foundations) on a mission to Myanmar. He has also lectured on conflict zones of the Moluccas, East Timor, and Iran for IDHA programs in both Geneva and New York.
His first book, the critically acclaimed Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran, is a chronicle of his family’s odyssey back to Iran after 30 years (Houghton Mifflin, Random House 2003). Translated into Italian, French, German and Indonesian, it was also published in two different Persian editions (Ketabsaraye Tandis and Jayhoon). The Persian Center of Northern California bestowed to him their Global Recognition Award for “promoting peace through cultural awareness,” while in LA, the Iranian Muslim Association of North America honored him for “enhancing knowledge of Iranian culture.” Simon & Schuster published a new updated edition in 2020.
His next work, The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today, explores Caravaggio and his masterpiece, “The Seven Acts of Mercy”, in two parallel stories set in Naples four hundred years apart (Arcade Publishing, 2016). The book’s release coincided with the Jubilee of Mercy and led to his participation with Cardinal Turkson at the Vatican Press Conference of September 1, 2017 to present Pope Francis’ declaration of the eighth act of mercy – Care for Our Common Home – an all-encompassing, ecumenical, ecological vision of protecting Mother Earth.
His latest book, The Wahhabi Code: How the Saudis Spread Extremism Globally, takes a critical look at the role of Saudi Arabia in fostering jihadi extremism in the Islamic World and beyond (Arcade Publishing, 2018). He was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on CNN about this complex issue. Recently, at the Getty Museum, he presented the book with President James Cuno under the theme: “From the Buddhas of Bamiyan to the Temples of Palmyra: Why is Cultural Heritage being Destroyed?”
He has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, and RAI-TV. His writing has appeared inthe Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, CNN, The Ecologist (Italian), Il Manifesto, Airone, Reset, and Conde Nast Traveler. His views on the Sunni-Shiite conflict have been cited in The New York Times. The Trilateral Commission and the Global Policy Council of AT Kearney invited his contributions for position papers on the Middle East.
In film, he produced the award-winning documentary “Black Africa White Marble” inspired by the humanist Italian explorer, Pietro Savorgnan di Brazza after whom the capital Brazzaville of the Republic of Congo is named. It won the Grand Prix at the Festival of Annecy (2012), Audience Award at Cambridge Film Festival (2013), and Best Documentary at Berlin Independent Film Festival (2014). He also produced the feature “Archaeology of a Woman”, (2014) starring Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland. His documentary “Talk Radio Tehran” (2016) by Mahtab Mansour follows courageous Iranian women who fulfill their aspirations in spite of gender-apartheid. It won Best Short Film at the Middle East Now Festival in Florence and aired on BBC for the International Day of the Woman (2018).
Terence serves as an ambassador of Religion for Peace of World Conference of Religions for Peace—the largest interfaith organization in the world. He is a member of PEN International and ISMEO (Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente) the prestigious Middle Eastern institute based in Rome and on the advisory board of The Markaz Review (formerly the Levantine Center) in Los Angeles which embraces all Middle Eastern cultures. With his wife, Idanna Pucci, he lives in Florence, Italy and New York.