Iran

Persephone

By Hasan Alizadeh
September 8, 2021 | Hasan Alizadeh

Photo by valkrye131 / Flickr I kiss her & death is the shadow of that loving bird shaking on the pool yet when she turns to look it has flown. * She’s gone, sleepwalking with her...
Will I Be Strong Enough for You? Nasim Marashi’s I’ll Be Strong for You

By Babak Mazloumi
June 22, 2021 | Babak Mazloumi

Nasim Marashi’s recently released novel I’ll Be Strong for You (Paeez Fasl-e Akhar-e Sal Ast), translated by Poupeh Missaghi (Astra House, 2021), is a first-person fictiona...
100 Essential Books by Iranian Writers: Children’s and Young Adult Titles

By Niloufar Talebi
September 30, 2020 | Niloufar Talebi

To mark the upcoming 2020 Neustadt Lit Fest and the announcement of the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, here is an excerpt featuring the children’s and young...
Mapping Tehran: A Conversation with Poupeh Missaghi

February 6, 2020 | Yanara Friedland

Photo by R. Romero © 2019 Poupeh Missaghi (@PoupehMissaghi) is a writer, educator, and a translator both into and out of Persian. She also serves as Iran’s editor at larg...
The Patriots: On Reading Becoming in Tehran

November 26, 2019 | Shohreh Laici

Photo of Tehran by Xiquinho Silva / Flickr A writer in Tehran incapable of entering the US under the Muslim travel ban encounters Michelle Obama’s Becoming in a beauty salon....
Flamingo #13 of the Caspian Sea

July 25, 2019 | Rasool Yunan

Photo by Stephen A. Wolfe / Flickr Flamingo #13 may have been the most beautiful flamingo in the world the villagers had ever heard of. All throughout the year, there was talk of it everywhere...
Ahmad Shamlou on the World Stage: A Conversation with Niloufar Talebi

May 9, 2019 | Samad Alavi

Ahmad Shamlou (left) | Photo by Hadi Shafaieh. Niloufar Talebi (right) | Photo by Devlin Shand In Self-Portrait in Bloom, Niloufar Talebi (www.niloufartalebi.com) tells her story...
A Poem for Maryam Mirzakhani

July 20, 2017 | Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani died of breast cancer on July 15 at the age of 40. A professor at Stanford University, Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Meda...
Attar, the Sufi Poet and Master of Rumi

April 12, 2017 | Sholeh Wolpé

Attar’s The Conference of the Birds, just released in a new translation, is a deeply meaningful and spiritual work, delightfully packed with lively banter, pathos, clever hyperbole, cheek...
Drinkable books, gender disparity, and more

August 21, 2015 | Laura Hernandez

Mia Couto. Photo by Shevaun Williams. News, Reviews, and Interviews Online literary magazine The Mantle is starting its own publishing imprint under the same name. Its focus will be on inte...
New Windows into the Iranian American Experience: An Interview with Anita Amirrezvani & Persis Karim

May 15, 2013 | Sara Wilson

Left: Anita Amirrezvani Right: Persis Karim Perhaps best known to the American public for the memoir genre, Iranian American literature has expanded considerably since the lat...