Ladane Nasseri is a multicultural writer, journalist and educator specializing in narrative nonfiction.
After nearly two decades as a Middle East correspondent, including serving as Bloomberg’s Iran news chief, Ladane now focuses on literary nonfiction. She writes at the intersection of history, memory, migration, and place, often blending reportage with lived experience. Her work traces the complexities—human and political—that shape how we remember, belong, and connect to the land.
Ladane has taught critical thinking and writing at New York University in Abu Dhabi and leads workshops in narrative nonfiction, the reported essay, memoir, journalism and oral history for organizations such as Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Hugo House, and Narratively Academy. She has also taught creative writing to underprivileged youth in New York City.
Her work has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Businessweek, Newsweek, The Nation, Libération, Frontline (PBS), WNYC Public Radio, Monocle Radio, McSweeney’s, and Electric Literature.
At Bloomberg News, Ladane led Iran coverage during a period of historic political change, reporting from Tehran, Beirut and Dubai. She chronicled politics, the economy, and social movements through multiple presidencies, uprisings, international sanctions, and nuclear negotiations resulting in the 2015 Iran deal. She has written about regional conflicts from Iraq to Syria and sent dispatches from across the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S.
Her work has been cited by leading think tanks, and she has appeared on Bloomberg TV and Radio, as well as spoken and moderated panels on politics, culture, and literature at the Atlantic Council, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, and the Emirates Literature Festival.
A 2023 MacDowell Fellow and 2021 Nonfiction Fellow at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, her work has also received support from Blue Mountain Center, the New York State Summer Writing Institute, and Writing by Writers.
Ladane holds an MFA in Literary Nonfiction from The New School and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. She has lived in a dozen cities across three continents, and is fluent in French, English, Persian, and Dari.
Ladane trained in Ashtanga yoga and meditation over several years of studies in India, receiving a teaching certificate in 2014. She continues her practice as a student of Zen.
(Photo credit: Matthew Lloyd)