focus – PARSAGON

As Though Someone Is Laughing at Little Girls!

November 18, 2018 Leili Adibfar 0

Written by Mehrnaz Shirazi-Adl From the short story collection That’s Perhaps the Only Way (شاید تنها راهش همین باشد) – Qatreh Publications, 2016. Translated from the Persian […]

Dariush Ashouri [b. 1938]

August 27, 2018 Farhad Taheri 0

Bio Brief Dariush Ashouri (b. August 2, 1938, Tehran) is an eminent Iranian intellectual, linguist, translator, encyclopedist, sociocultural activist, and Hafezologist. Ashouri was born in […]

Ahmad Samiee Guilani [b. 1920]

June 13, 2018 Shadi Shadman 0

Ahmad Samiee Guilani is an eminent writer, translator, and editor. He was born in February of 1920 in Sangelaj neighborhood, Tehran. Having received elementary and […]

Noofe Speculative Novel Awards

According to the Awards’ website, Noofe Speculative Novel Awards was founded in Winter 2019 sponsored by Peydayesh Books to promote Persian speculative fiction and support […]
Three Poems by Leila Kordbache

Born in 1981, Tehran, Leila Kordbache is a published poet and literary researcher. She has over ten published volumes of poetry and monographs on Persian […]
Three Odes to Spring: Shafiei Kadkani

Pari Azarm Motamedi is an Iranian artist now living in Canada whose devotion to literature is manifest in her paintings. Her practice and interests for […]
Dariush Shayegan, Author of Cultural Schizophrenia Dies

Iranian thinker and cultural theorist Dariush Shayegan passed away today (March 22) at Firouzgar Hospital of Tehran after two months in a coma.
Samin Baghcheban [1925 – 2008]

It was that time of the year again; the time that the scent of hyacinths fuses with the smell of vinegar, and the goldfish bounces […]
March 2016

Samin Baghcheban Returns with Chaharshanbeh Soori Few years after the saddening death of the best preserver of the Iranian people’s childhood memories in operatic collection, […]
Homage to Modern Scheherazade of Iran

Most of Daneshvar’s protagonists are women; her attention to women’s lives and their characters were unprecedented in the fictional literature of Iran. The women she portrayed are unalike those that her famous contemporaries
Parvin Etesami Awards

Acclaimed Iranian poetess, Parvin Etesesami, was born in Tabriz in 1907. Her first collection of poems was published in 1935 and she received the 3rd […]
RIP Richard Nelson Frye

Regarded as the “dean of the world’s Iranists,” Eminent American scholar and Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye passed away on March 27, 2014 aged 94. He […]
From Pariz to Paris to Paradise: Bastani Parizi passes away

Mohammad-Ebrahim Bastani Parizi, Iranian writer, researcher, historian and University of Tehran’s Emeritus Professor passed away yesterday (March 25) at age 89. Born in Pariz town […]

Peyman Esmaeili’s Favorite Books

Peyman Esmaeili was born in 1977 in Tehran. He studied electronics engineering at Iran University of Science & Technology, meanwhile he was a member of […]
Elli Dehnavi Recommends

Born in 1980 in Mashhad, Elli Dehnavi is a writer, editor, and literary translator who also does academic research on Middle Eastern cinema and literature. […]
Natasha Moharramzadeh’s Top Reads

Natasha Moharramzadeh was born in 1979 in the northern city of Lahijan. She holds an MA degree in Art Research from the Art University of […]
Top 2014 Literary Translations From Persian

The year just passed was not that fruitful in the number of Persian literary works translated into English; the list hardly exceeds ten. In terms […]
Aida Runs over Behnam Naseh’s Bookshelves

Born in 1973 in Rasht, Behnam Naseh is a published writer, editor, and journalist. His debut novel Irandokht was the praiseworthy winner of the 16th […]
In the Library of Payman Fiuzat

Born in 1981 in Tehran, Payman Fiuzat started his studies as an electronics student at Azad University but then changed his major to English translation a while later, […]
Sholeh Wolpe’s Top Sevens

The Parsagon Review’s October guest is a literary mediator between two cultures with her translations especially of contemporary Iranian poetry and prose. Sholeh Wolpé is […]
Hamed Esmaeilion Recommends

Hamed Esmaeilion, born in 1977 in Kermanshah, should be categorized among the new post-war generation of novelists in Iran who have a real and tangible […]
Illustrator Morteza Zahedi’s Favorite Fiction

Renowned painter, illustrator and sculptor Morteza Zahedi was born in 1978 in Rasht, Iran. Zahedi graduated in painting in 1995 and ever since then has held […]
Mehdi Navid Recommends

Born in 1981 in Kermanshah and brought up in Tehran, Mehdi Navid is a writer, translator and editor best known for his translations of Beckett […]
Dr Behzad Ghaderi’s Top Sevens

Born in 1953 in the South-Eastern city of Zahedan, Behzad Ghaderi should be regarded as the cavalier of Drama Studies in Iran. A peerless translator, […]
The Top Seven Books of Belgheis Soleimani

Writer and literary critic Belgheis Soleimani was born in April 1963 in a rural area near Kerman. She started her literary career as a researcher […]
Mohsen Ghane Basiri’s Top 7s

Mohsen Ghane Basiri (b. 1949) is the editor-in-chief of Modiriat (Management) Monthly Journal. He is a prolific Iranian theorist and epistemologist. Ghane Basiri is the […]
7 Popular Iranian Children’s Books: Editors Pick

Since 1967, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated on April 2, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, to inspire the love of reading […]
Ale Ebrahim Recommends

Mohammadreza Ale-Ebrahim, our February 2014 featured writer, was born in Estahban in 1951 and holds a double B.A. in Training Sciences (management and planning) and […]
The Top Sevens in the Library of Robab Moheb

Born in 1953 in the Southeastern city of Ahvaz, Iran, Robab Moheb studied sociology at the University of Tehran and, after immigration to Sweden in […]
Curator Ali Bakhtiari Recommends

Of the youngest prolific Iranian curators, Ali Bakhtiari was born in 1985, Tehran. He started his career as a curator in 2008 with a retrospective of Faramarz Pilaram at Gallery 66 in Tehran.
Reza Sarraf Recommends

Born in 1975 in Tehran, Gholamreza Sarraf holds a BA in Dramatic Literature and an MA in Cinema from Art University of Tehran. “Out of […]
The Goethe Medal Winner Recommends

Born in 1947 in Damavand, Sayyed-Mahmoud Hosseinizad is a dramatist, short story writer and one of the world-known literary translators of Iran who received the […]
The Marbels Man Recommends

Short story writer and literary critic, Amirhosein Yazdanbod was born in 1977 in Tehran and studied physics and philosophy, two fields of science that have […]