There are thousands of artists in New York City. Some are famous internationally, while others are scratching out a living while perfecting their craft in basements or on stage. WNYC is bringing a few of them to the spotlight, in their own voices.

Here, Iranian-American writer Porochista Khakpour. She is the author of "Sons and Other Flammable Objects" and several essays.

Khakpour started writing creatively at a very young age, because when her parents were leaving Iran in the early 1980s they left most of their belongings behind assuming they would come back for them, but never did. "All we had was really pen and paper, markers, things like that, on these long trips that we were taking to find a home, essentially," she said.

Khakpour said she wrote two novels by the time she was 12. "There has never been anything else I wanted to do," she said.

The family settled in Pasadena, California, where Khakpour grew up.

But now she is back in Harlem, after battling late stage of Lyme disease for about a year. She couldn't read, write, drive, and was in constant pain until she was diagnosed last August. "I am now in remission and I am so glad to be able to work and have a life here in New York again," she said. "Whenever I have been down, my goal has always been... you'll be fine, when you are back in the city."

Khakpour's second novel, "The Last Illusion," is coming out in the summer of 2014.

To listen to the whole story with Khakpour, click on the audio link above.

(Photo by Sunny Shokrae)