Lailee Bakhtiar

Lailee Inez Bakhtiar (née McNair, formerly van Dillen; born June 10, 1951), is an American poet and novelist.

[1] Bakhtiar's father was Frederick Vallette McNair III, born in 1922 in Annapolis, Maryland, and served in World War II in the Pacific on the USS Leyte Gulf.

Parveen's brother was football player, Jim Bakhtiar, in the Sports Hall of Fame at the University of Virginia.

Bakhtiar was born in Washington, D.C., and named after her mother's favorite poet, Nizami, and his poem, Layla and Majnun.

Upon graduation from UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Bakhtiar moved to New York City, where she was a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines in 1973.

Bakhtiar spoke as one of the participants at the UNESCO Culture of Peace: Women Making It Happen at the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, United Nations, New York, on March 2, 2000.

[6] She was married at All Saints Episcopal Church, Chevy Chase in November 1974 to tennis pro and Davis Cup player Erik van Dillen.

Bakhtiar was a civilian volunteer for the United States Naval Academy Protestant Sunday school program for ten years (2003–2013).

Her most recent non-fiction book, awarded the 2021 prize for biography and fiction from the National Federation of Press Women.