Reza Negarestani is an Iranian philosopher and writer, known for "pioneering the genre of 'theory-fiction' with his book" Cyclonopedia which was published in 2008. It was listed in Artforum as one of the best books of 2009. Negarestani has studied Mathematics at Shiraz University and has been a lecturer in the same university before immigrating to the United States. Currently, he directs the critical philosophy programme at The New Centre for Research & Practice.