Mahshad Abdoli is a literary translator and English language instructor based in Hamedan, Iran. With a background in pragmatics, semantics, and cross-cultural communication, her work explores the delicate interplay between language, meaning, and cultural nuance. She brings a thoughtful, interpretive sensibility to…
Mojgan Mousavi was born in 1965 and has lived in various cities across Iran throughout her life. She earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree and has practiced dentistry throughout her professional career. Alongside her medical profession, literature has remained a…
Mahmood Khoshchereh holds a Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University. He has taught courses in English and Comparative Literature at McMaster and worked as an academic tutor for students with disabilities at George Brown College. Among various publications, he…
Dr. Mehrak Kamali is an Iranologist and Professor of Persian who specializes in Persian language pedagogy, modern Persian literature, and the contemporary history of Iran. Since 2014, he has served as Director of the Persian Language Program in the Department of Near…
Amir Hossein Yazdanbod (born 1977, Tehran) is an Iranian writer, literary critic, and translator. To date, he has published two books: the short story collection Portrait of an Unfinished Man (Cheshmeh, 2008) and the novel Stutter (Ofogh Publishing, 2013). In addition, dozens…
Fatemeh Zarei was born in 1969 in Tehran. She studied graphic design and worked in the same field for many years. Alongside her career, she pursued her passion for writing fiction. Her first short story collection, My Profession Is Dreaming, was published…
Mohammad-Ali Talebi is an Iranian screenwriter and film director whose career has spanned more than four decades. His films have been screened at major international film festivals, including Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Locarno, Sundance, Tokyo, and many others, earning numerous awards…
Mahsa Nikan, born in 1984, is originally from Iranian Kurdistan. He studied psychology with a specialization in exceptional children. His first stories for children were published in the Iranian monthly magazine Aroosak-e Sokhangoo (The Talking Doll). In 2013, he emigrated from Sulaymaniyah…
Hassan “Bijan” Safdari (born February 10, 1950, in Isfahan) is an Iranian poet, writer, and translator whose literary sensibility was shaped during his high-school years under the mentorship of the late Mohammad Hoquqi and through his early connection with the first circle…
(Foad Kermani) [1851-1938] (1268 AH – 1358 AH / 1317 SH) Qodsī Kermānī—poet, vocalist, and player of the tār—was one of the leaders of the community of the People of the Bayān (the Azali Babis). Writing under the pen name “Foād,” he…
Tala Khanmalek (aka mecca monarch) is a writer, editor, and scholar with a PhD in ethnic studies from UC Berkeley. Tala is author of The Sun Planters (Asemana Books 2026) and An Infinity of Traces (Blue Cactus Press 2026) as well as the children’s book My…
Vahid Zarrabi Nasab is a PhD student in media management in Tehran and a writer, director, and film critic based in Toronto. With a 22-year career spanning journalism and editing, he has collaborated with a broad array of Iranian and Canadian media…
Peyman Yarian, born in 1971 in western Iran, began his cultural work after receiving his high school diploma at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he nurtured the imagination and creativity of the younger generation as…
Siamak Vossoughi is an Iranian-American writer living in Seattle. He has had stories published in various journals and is the author of two short story collections, Better Than War (recipient of a 2014 Flannery O’ Connor Award for Short Fiction) and A…
Marzieh Sotoudeh, a fiction writer and translator, was born in Tehran and currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Over the years, two collections of her stories, comprising twenty-eight tales, were not permitted for publication in Iran. However, her stories gained recognition in literary…
Alireza Shilesar holds a bachelor’s degree in Acting and a master’s degree in Dramatic Literature. He has written 15 plays so far, most of which he has directed and staged himself. His most recent work in Iran was the play “Nakhoda Khanom”, which…
Jaffer Sheyholislami is Professor in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies, Carleton University. He conducts research in Sociolinguistics and the sociology of language, critical discourse analysis, language policy and planning, and applied linguistics. Skills and Expertise.
Adeeba Shahid Talukder is a Pakistani and Bengali-American poet, vocalist, and translator of Urdu and Persian poetry. She is the author of Shahr-e-jaanaan: The City of the Beloved (Tupelo Press, 2020), winner of the 2017 Kundiman Poetry Prize, and the chapbook What…
Irene Monique Salehi was born in 1954 in Paris. She studied art in Paris, Tehran, and Canada, and now lives in Toronto with over thirty years of experience in silk painting. Since 1998, she has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada…
A former Postdoctoral Fellow with the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, Duman Riyazi ‘s research interests include artefacts and manuscript documents of the commedia dell’arte, the theatrical relationship between East and West, the history of Persian theatre and Persian comedy. He…
M. Rezaei Tazik was born in July 1983 in Mashhad. He graduated with degrees in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from the Universities of Lucerne and Berne in Switzerland. His master’s and doctoral studies focused on the history of intellectual thought…
Saeid Rezadoust, a researcher, writer, and poet, was born in 1985 in Neyshabur, Iran. A graduate in law, he has amassed years of professional experience working and writing in the fields of literature, law, and interdisciplinary topics. His background in journalism and…
Kaveh Oveisi, a graduate in dramatic literature, embarked on his writing journey in 1998 with the short story “Arash,” which garnered recognition at the Isfahan Students’ Story Festival. He furthered his artistic endeavors by delving into the creation of short films and…
Hossein Noushazar (born 1963) is an Iranian writer, translator, and journalist. He emigrated from Iran in the late 1980s and spent many years in Germany, where he pursued academic studies and worked in healthcare and psychiatric institutions—initially as a nurse and later as…