Shakila Azizzada was born in Kabul in Afghanistan in 1964. During her middle school and university years in Kabul, she started writing stories and poems, many of which were published in magazines. Her poems are unusual in their frankness and delicacy, particularly in the way she approaches intimacy and female desire, subjects which are rarely […]
Mujib Mehrdad is an established poet of the younger generation who writes free verse and is highly respected both as a poet and as a scholar. You can foillow him on twitter here.
Translator Hamid Kabir writes how the commission to co-translate Reza Mohammadi’s poems was an entirely new experience for him and how it enriched his appreciation both of poetry in Persian and his knowledge of English.
Nick Laird describes stages he went through translating Reza Mohammadi’s poems – from unsuccessful early drafts through a transformative experience of hearing Reza read – that led to the ‘weird pleasure’ of translating: ‘like opening your mouth and finding someone else’s voice come out’.
Poet Mimi Khalvati describes how much she enjoyed the experience of translating Afghan poet, Shakila Azzizada with Zuzanna Olszewska, a process she found much easier having translated Kurdish poet, Kajal Ahmad, with us in 2008.
Zuzanna Olszewska writes about the challenges and pleasures of translating Afghan poet, Shakila Azizzada, with Mimi Khalvati for the PTC’s Persian Poets’ Tour 2012