Since the publication of Funny in Farsi, her first book, she has been active on the lecture circuit, speaking at universities, conferences, high schools, middle schools, and other venues. It has a cult following among educators, with over half a million copies sold. It is required reading at many junior highs, high schools, and universities across the country, and it is frequently the only hilarious and popular book on reading lists.[4]
Educators have discovered that Firoozeh's novels are a portal to many themes, including shared humanity, immigration, language, family, and identity, despite the fact that pupils are initially drawn in by the humor. Her website provides a free study guide. Many community reading initiatives have had excellent success using Firoozeh's books for citywide reads. Firoozeh's stories appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds, and her humor is well received. She is a writer who enjoys conversing and interacting with others.[4]
Her other work has been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Gourmet and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has also been a commentator for National Public Radio, and a panelist on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.[5]
An attempt was made to adapt Funny in Farsi as a television sitcom by ABC in 2009. A pilot episode, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Maz Jobrani, was filmed but never aired.[6]
On July 31, 2014, she asked her readers who lived in Iran to purchase the English versions of her books, as the Persian versions not translated by Mohammed Soleimani Nia are unauthorized.[7]
It Ain't So Awful, Falafel, Firoozeh's first historical fiction novel, was published to critical acclaim in 2016 and is now taught in grades 4 through 9 across the United States. It was a Kirkus starred book and a Time magazine Top 10 Young Adult and Children's Book in 2016. It Ain't So Awful, Falafel also won the John and Patricia Beatty Award from the California Library Association in 2017, the New-York Historical Society's 2017 New Americans Children's History Book Prize, the Sunshine State Young Reader Award in 2017, and was a finalist for the California Young Reader Medal.[4]
