Association of Iranian American Writers - A forum to support and advance Iranian American writers and writing

A forum to support and inspire Iranian American writers and writing
 
Iranian American Writers - Featured Writers

Association of Iranian American Writers - featureed writers - fiction

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet - Author and writer
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Fiction: MARTYRDOM STREET
Read more about Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Association of Iranian American Writers - featured writers - poetry

Iranian American Writers - Poet Roger Sedarat
Roger Sedarat
Four Poems by Roger Sedarat
Read more about Roger Sedarat
Association of Iranian American Writers - Non-Fiction

Iranian American Writers - Writer and Author Kianoosh Hashemzadeh
Kianoosh Hashemzadeh
THEY LEFT A PAPER TRAIL
Excerpt from Kianoosh’s essay, They Left a Paper Trail, which will appear in Pinchback Press anthology: Robot Hearts: Twisted and True Tales of Seeking Love in the Digital Age
Read more about Kianoosh Hashemzadeh
AIAW now on

AIAW is now on Facebook
Association of Iranian American Writers - A forum to support and advance Iranian American writers and writing

Poets For Peace - Split this Rock Poetry Festival - March 2010

Panel Discussion - March 11, 2010
The War is Not Over: Writing about Iraq and the Case of the Mutanabbi Street Coalition. At the Split this Rock Poetry Festival
The following AIAW panel members will share work by Iraqi and American poets and writers:
  • Persis Karim
  • Zaid Shlah
  • Sarah Browning
  • Zara Houshmand
Date: Thursday March 11, 2010
Time: 11.30am - 1 pm
Where: SPLIT THIS ROCK POETRY FESTIVAL 2010 (March 10-13), Poetry of Provocation and Witness, Washington, D.C.
:: Map to come
Venue Listings, schedule and contact info at:
www.splitthisrock.org
Reading - March 12, 2010
A New Day:
Readings by Afghan and Iranian American Writers at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, New York

Celebrate Now Ruz, our common New Year, with an evening of fiction and memoir by ground-breaking writers from the Afghan and Iranian American diasporas. Acknowledging the deeply entwined histories of our peoples and the overlapping richness of our literary traditions, this reading is inspired by our desire to forge new artistic collaborations in the US, where the breadth and insight of our many stories are most urgently needed.

Join contributors to the forthcoming Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature, Naheed Elyasi, Masood Kamandy, Sedika Mojadidi and Sahar Muradi, along with best-selling novelist Dalia Sofer, debut novelist Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet and poetic prose writer Aphrodite Desiree Navab for readings and conversation to welcome in the new year.

This event will be hosted by Zohra Saed, co-director of the Association of Afghan American Writers, and Manijeh Nasrabadi, co-director of the Association of Iranian American Writers.

Sponsors of A New Day:

Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Association of Iranian American Writers
Association of Afghan American Writers
Arte East


Author Bios:

Naheed Elyasi fled Afghanistan in 1982, three years after the Soviet invasion. Her family walked across the mountains into Pakistan, where they lived for one year before being accepted as refugees to the United States. Naheed grew up in North Carolina, where she studied Communications and Public Relations. After completing her degree at East Carolina University, she moved to Atlanta, where she studied Fashion Design. Her love for fashion brought her to New York in 1999, where she worked as an assistant designer at Maggy London and in the production department at Marc Jacobs. She eventually left fashion to pursue a career in not for profit, and joined School of Hope, an organization that raised funds for schools in Afghanistan. Naheed is currently the Director of Communications at the Council for Economic Education, and a contributing writer for Zeba Magazine.

Masood Kamandy is an image maker and an aspiring Sufi who splits his time between Brooklyn and Khorasan. He is currently studying the relationship between word and image through a collaborative series of photographs, videos and found objects on his website wordsbecomeimages.com.

Sedika Mojadidi is a filmmaker and writer. Her most recent documentary film, Motherland Afghanistan was aired on PBS. Her films on Afghanistan and the Afghan-American experience include: Kabul, Kabul and Zulaikha.

Manijeh Nasrabadi is co-director of the Association of Iranian American Writers. She received her MFA in creative nonfiction from Hunter College, where she also taught creative writing workshops. She was a 2008 recipient of a Hedgebrook writing residency. Currently, she’s a doctoral student in American Studies at New York University. Her essays and articles have appeared in About Face (Seal Press), Hyphen Magazine, Tehran Bureau and Callaloo.

Sahar Muradi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She and her family emigrated to the United States when she was three years old. She grew up in New York and Florida. Sahar received her B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Hampshire College, and her M.P.A. in Interntional Development from New York University. Sahar has written extensively about her family experiences, as well as reported on current events in Afghanistan. Her writing has been featured in literary magazines, newspapers, as well as read on public radio. In 2003, Sahar returned to her native Kabul to work for two years. She helped coordinate a donor conference with the Foreign Ministry and managed a small grant program for civil society development. She is currently a Program and Trek Coordinator for the international organization, buildOn. She lives in Brooklyn and is co-editor of the first Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press, forthcoming).

Aphrodite Désirée Navab is a Greek Iranian American artist and writer based in New York City (b. 1971, Iran). She uses visual art and writing to investigate transnational issues in art, education, cultural and women’s studies. The world premiere of her solo show, She Speaks Greek Farsi was at ICC Athens, Greece. Navab’s creative nonfiction and fiction are published or forthcoming in Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora, Homelands; Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place and Time and other anthologies. She is currently writing her novel.

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet teaches Middle Eastern history and directs the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 (Princeton University Press, 1999) and Conceiving Citizens: Women, Sexuality, and Religion in Modern Iran (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2010). She is also completing a book on America 's historical relationship with Iran and the Islamic world entitled, The Making of the 'Great Satan': A History of US - Iranian Relations (under contract with Princeton University Press). Her first novel, Martyrdom Street, will be published by Syracuse University Press in 2010.

Zohra Saed received her MFA at Brooklyn College. Her poetry and essays have been published in numerous anthologies and journals. Most recently in Gallerie International Journal: Afghanistan Ed. Bina Sarkar (India: 2009); The Crab Orchard Review (Summer/Fall 2009); and in Speaking for Herself: Asian Women’s Writings (Penguin India Books: 2009). She has performed as part of the cast of the legendary theater director Ping Chong’s Undesirable Elements in 2000 and in 2007, where the ensemble cast performed at the first National Asian American Theater Festival. She is co-editor of the first Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press, forthcoming).

Dalia Sofer was born in Tehran, Iran. At the age of eleven she moved to New York, where she attended the Lycée Français de New York, and later, New York University. Dalia received an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and has been a resident at Yaddo. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, of the 2008 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship, and of the 2009 Sami Rohr Choice Award. Her novel, The Septembers of Shiraz, was selected as a 2007 New York Times "Notable Book of the Year", was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award in 2008, and has been (or is in the process of being) translated and published in sixteen countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Israel, and Brazil. She has published essays in various anthologies, and has been a contributor to Poets & Writers magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Academy of American Poets’ National Poetry Almanac, and NPR. She lives in New York City.

Date: Friday, March 12, 2010
Time: 7 PM
Where: Asian American Writers’ Workshop - 16 W32nd St, Suite 10A, New York, NY 10001 - MAP
Contact Info:
$5 cover charge. A collection will also be taken to support the Committee to Protect Journalists

Reading - March 13, 2010
We Are All Iran
: A Reading of Poetry by Iranian American Poets at the Split this Rock Poetry Festival
The following AIAW members will be reading:
  • Poets For Peace - Split this Rock Poetry Festival - March 2010Persis Karim
  • Kaveh Bassiri
  • Sholeh Wolpé
  • Zara Houshmand
  • Solmaz Sharif
Date: Saturday March 13, 2010
Time: 2:00pm - 3:30 pm
Where:SPLIT THIS ROCK POETRY FESTIVAL 2010 (March 10-13), Poetry of Provocation and Witness, Washington, D.C.
Venue Listings, schedule and contact info at:
www.splitthisrock.org
Reading - Identities and Influence: A Panel of Emerging Asian American Women Writers - April 22, 2010 at the University of San Francisco, Xavier Room.
Anita Amirrezvani joins a panel of emerging Asian American women writers
Anita Amirrezvani
Keep this date free and join us for a panel discussion about emerging Asian American women writers. On the panel are Anita Amirrezvani (left), Kathryn Ma, Barbara Jane Reyes and Shawna Yang Ryan. Moderated by Marianne Villanueva.

Two novelists, a short story writer and a poet discuss what influences and inspires their writing and how they negotiate their identity as writers. In her novel The Blood of Flowers Anita Amirrezvani skillfully interweaves culture, romance and art. Kathryn Ma’s story collection All That Work and Still No Boys won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. For Poeta en San Francisco, Barbara Jane Reyes received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Shawna Yang Ryan’s first novel, Water Ghosts, is a haunted portrait of a Sacramento River town. Marianne Villanueva, whose most recent story collection is Mayor of the Roses, is also the co-editor of Going Home to A Landscape: Writings by Filipinas.

Presented by:
:: University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program

:: Asian-American Studies Program Cosponsored by the Center for the Pacific Rim and Asia Society, Northern California


Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010
Time: 7:30 PM- 9 PM
Where: Xavier Room in Fromm Hall (corner of Parker and Golden Gate), USF campus. MAP
Contact Info:

Latest Opportunities

Washington Square Review - seeking poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by exiled writers for publication in their Spring Issue - March 1

Washington Square ReviewThe Washington Square Review is the literary journal of the MFA program at New York University. Washington Square have an ongoing goal of seeking out international writing and presenting it in translation. This Sprin they will produce a themed issue called Borderlands, focused on the writing of exiled writers. They seek poetry, fiction, and nonfiction contributions.

They also seek artists in exile who are interested in collaborating in a related event in New York City this Spring, which will include readings from the issue as well as other performances.

Submissions or inquiries: anissa.bazari@gmail.com or washingtonsquare.international@gmail.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Deadline: Submissions must be in by March 1, 2010.
More information: www.washingtonsquarereview.com

Exiled Writers Ink - Contribute your stories and poems about the Haiti disaster to the Exiled Writers Ink Forum

Haiti Earthquake Contribute your Poems and Stories about the disaster in Haiti to the Exiled Ink Forum pages:

Go to: www.exiledwriters.co.uk
Click on: Send us your poems and stories
Click on: New topic
Put in subject and what you want to write
Press Submit
Note: You will need to register to contribute to the forum

Latest News
Update - Mahbod Seraji's Rooftops of Tehran
Mahbod Seraji - Author and Writer Rooftops of Tehran was voted in the Outstanding Debut category for Fall-Winter 2009-2010 by Indie Booksellers nationwide, and was selected as an Indie Next Notable for the month of June and a Bookreporter Bets On in May.

San Francisco Chronicle chose Rooftops of Tehran as one of its top 50 books in the Bay Area in December.

Rooftops is Villanova University's One Book selection for 2009-2010. Mahbod was on campus on January 26th Rooftops in Tehranfor a lecture event. He was also on NPR for an interview on “Radio Times with Marty Moss- Coane” at 11:00 am on January 25, and rebroadcast on Sirius Radio later the same day.

Rooftops
is Broward College's Rites of Spring 2010 selection. Mahbod will be on their campus on March 30th and 31st.

More info here: www.rooftopsoftehran.com

AIAW writers appear in Callaloo Journal!
Callaloo JournalCallaloo, the journal of arts and letters of the African Diaspora, has just released a special issue (Volume 32, Number 4) of Middle Eastern and North African writers guest-edited by AIAW member Salar Abdoh (On the Way to the Wind: Contemporary Writing from the Middle East and North Africa) and Percival Everett.

AIAW members Sholeh Wolpé (Of Leaving), Persis Karim (Ways to Count the Dead) and Manijeh Nasrabadi (A Far Corner of the Revolution) are among the many established and emerging writers featured in this diverse collection, which includes voices from across the region and throughout the diaspora. Check it out online at:
www.muse.jhu.edu or at your local library.
AIAW members Sholeh Wolpé and Esther Kamkar published in London, UK Exiled Ink Magazine - Issue 12, Autumn/Winter 2009
Exiled Ink Magazine

New innovative magazine reflecting exciting, different voices in a new cultural environment. Content features literature, discussion and commentary. Exiled Ink is unique in providing an insight into dislocation and cultures of exile, both through the voices of exiled writers and through their literary work.

CONTENTS

Conflict Zones - Sri Lanka
Poetry: R. Cheran, Thirumavalavan, Sivamohan Sumathy
Prose: Rohini Hensman
Articles: Sri Lankan Tamil Poetry - Rohini Hensman, Historical Background - Lakshmi Holmstrom

Iran
Poetry: Sholeh Wolpé, Esther Kamkar (Animals that We Are), Majid Naficy, Afshin Babzadeh, Reza Hiwa
Articles: Last Straw for Iranians - Fariba Marzban, Haleh Esfandiari - Claire Messud

Syria (Kurdish)
Poetry: Hussein Habash

Chechyna
Poetry: Mikhail Isin Eldin
Article: Apti Bisultanov - Sieglinde Geisel
Short Story: Tamara Islamova

Bosnia
Theatre Production and Script excerpts
Exiled Writers Ink National Mentoring and Translation Project
Poetry and Prose

Latin American Exile
Prose: Marta Raquel Zabelata Hinrichsen/ Alfredo Cordal
Poetry: Gisela Jachniuk

Exiled from Israel
Poetry: Haim Bresheeth

Writing Africa
Short Story: Fiston Mwanza
Poetry: Kiluanji Kush
Article: Caine Prize: Nisha Jones

Reviews
Anthology of Somali Literature - review: Stephen Watts
Leaving Tangiers by Tahar Ben Jelloun - review: Albert Pellicer
Rooftops of Tehran by Sholeh Wolpe - review: Jeremy Edward Shiok
Like Myth and Mother by S. Sumathy - review: Lynette Craig

Contact Info and Website: www.exiledwriters.co.uk

Farnoosh Moshiri's poem 'Blossoms Culled, Unripe' has been published in a new anthology by Lost Horse Press: I Go to the Ruined Place --
Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
Farnoosh Moshiri - Anthology - Blossoms Culled, Unripe

I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
This Poetry Anthology features a poem by AIAW member Farnoosh Moshiri, "Blossoms Culled, Unripe".
Edited by Melissa Kwasny and M. L. Smoker, this 6 x 8 inch, 168 page Anthology is honest, brutal and inspiring. Read more here
For each book sold, $2 will be donated to the Bonner County (Idaho) Human Rights Task Force
Available at your local bookstore or online book retailer




Please submit your Event and News ideas to Manijeh or Persis:
(manijeh_nasrabadi@yahoo.com or persisk@yahoo.com),

AIAW News Briefs

New AIAW Slideshow
Welcome to new members:
Roia FerrazaresRoia FerrazaresShokoofeh RajabzadehShokoofeh Rajabzadeh Sepideh Khosrowjah - playwright, actor, directorSepideh Khosrowjah Shideh EtaatShideh Etaat
Katrin ArefyKatrin Arefy

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Update -- AIAW Blog

AIAW Blog


Thank you to all of you who joined the AIAW Blog and the old and new authors who have contributed to it. We've attempted to simplify the joining and login process - there is now a short step-by-step tutorial on how to login.
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