Abiz, Alireza

Alireza Abiz © Fabrice Gagos

Iranian poet, literary scholar, and translator Alireza Abiz was born in South Khorasan in 1968. He studied English literature in Mashhad and Tehran and earned a PhD in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Today he lives in London. He has published extensively on contemporary Persian literature and culture. In 2020, he published the comprehensive treatise Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Politics and Culture since 1979. To date, he has published five collections of poetry, most recently in 2017 the Shamlou Prize-winning Black Line – London Underground. A selection volume in English translation, The Kindly Interrogator, was published by Shearsman in 2021. Abiz has translated poetry into Persian by Basil Bunting, Derek Walcott, and Jack Kerouac, among others. He has served on the jury of several literary awards, is a trustee of the Poetry Translation Centre, and teaches creative writing.

Festival Content

PERSIAN POETRY IN EUROPEAN EXILE: As much of the fatherland as I’ve got in my suitcase

READING, TALK AND MUSIC – Developments in Iran over the past few decades have forced countless writers into exile, often with little more than their own language in tow. “As much of the fatherland as I have in my suitcase” is a poem about exile by the poet Esmail Kho’i, who passed away in London in 2021.

Abiz, Alireza • Ekhtesari, Fatemeh • Falaki, Mahmood • Schaffa, Mudzgan • Rafani, Roshanak • Aras, Maryam • Abdollahi, Ali • Samawatie, Cymin