The Magic of Solidarity: Shahrnush Parsipur and Suheir Hammad, with Persis Karim @ REDCAT

REDCAT: Two courageous authors, novelist Shahrnush Parsipur and poet Suheir Hammad, have fiercely insisted on voicing consciousness and social criticism. Joined by editor and scholar Persis Karim, who moderates, this evening is devoted to creative conviction linking nations, genres, and generations.  Read more

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Shahrnush Parsipur was born in Tehran in February 17, 1946. She started her literary career when she was sixteen, writing short stories and articles. She graduated from the University of Tehran in Sociology. When she was twenty-eight, she wrote her first novel, Sag va Zememstaneh Boland (The Dog and the Long Winter – translated into Russian). She is the author of several additional novels, including Touba and the Meaning of Night (adapted into a film by Shirin Neshat), and the first ever Iranian science fiction novel, Bar Baaleh Badd Neshestan (On the Wings of Wind), two novellas, including the acclaimed Women Without Men, and three collections of short stories.  Parsipur has been imprisoned several times for her activism and for the feminist content of her fiction, much of which is banned in Iran. Due to the problems associated with the revolution in Iran in 1979, she could not complete her education in France, and had to return to Iran.  As a result of a misunderstanding, she ended up in the Islamic Republic of Iran's political prison, for four years and seven months, and later, because she openly referred to the issue of virginity in her novella Women Without Men, she was imprisoned twice more.  She is also the author Prison Memoir, and two collections of short stories.  In 2003 she received the International Writers Fellowship from the Brown University, and is the recipient of numerous awards.  Her works have been translated into English, Swedish, Spanish, Malayalam, Italian, Dutch and French.  Ms. Parsipur currently lives in Northern California.

Suheir Hammad is the author of ‘breaking poems’, recipient of a 2009 American Book Award, as well as the best selling ‘ZaatarDiva’, ‘Born Palestinian, Born Black’ and ‘Drops of This Story’.  She has been the Artist in Residency at the NYU’s APA Institute, as well as a recipient of the Copeland Fellowship at Amherst College.  She appeared in the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, ‘Salt of This Sea’.  Her produced plays include ‘Blood Trinity’ and ‘breaking letter(s)’, and she wrote the libretto for the multimedia performance ‘Re-Orientalism’.  An original writer and performer in the TONY award winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Suheir appeared on every season of the HBO show that inspired the Broadway run and world tour.

Persis Karim is a poet, editor and professor of literature and creative writing at San Jose State University. She is the editor of two anthologies: Let Me Tell You Where i've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006) and A World Between: Poems, Short Stories and Essays by Iranian Americans (1999). She has written extensively on Iranian diaspora literature and her poetry has appeared in numerous national and local publications. She lives in Berkeley, California.