SEVEN VALLEYS OF LOVE


I was born on a November day 1972 in a room on the third floor of Hashtroudian hospital in Tehran, Iran, nine months after my mother was assured by my father that yes, she didn't have to be a stay-at-home mom, and could continue her independent busy working life style.
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I wake each morning to the lovely sound of my few-months-old baby and with a body not fully recovered from the shock of an emergency c-section, I get ready to feed the now-all-screaming-up apple-pie. Once I am finished feeding, changing the diaper, rinsing my hands, and putting my contacts in, I go to wake up my daughter who asks for more time to sleep and I reply no!

Of course, while all of the above is exciting I should stay with the original plan which was to announce the release of my latest book. It is a bilingual anthology of women poets from Middle Ages Persia to present day Iran. I have translated and edited poems by Iranian born women of different ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds whose life in many ways has been a journey.

It goes without saying that Seven Valleys of Love makes an excellent every day gift for all of your loved ones! To learn more please visit publication info here and to order you can go here. I started the translation of these poems after losing my mother to breast cancer. I chose to work through my grieving period. Some donations will proceed to a breast cancer research center in Connecticut and copies of this anthology have made their way to public and university libraries. I also like to thank Ms. Pouran Farrokhzad for giving me the permission to use and translate a selection of Persian poems from Zanan-e Hamisheh, a contemporary anthology in Persian.