Sholeh Wolpé was born in 1962 in
Tehran,
Pahlavi Iran,[1] and spent most of her teen years in Trinidad and the United Kingdom before settling in the United States.[1] She previously lived in
Redlands, California.[3][4][5]
The
Poetry Foundation has written that “Wolpé’s concise, unflinching, and often wry free verse explores violence, culture, and gender. So many of Wolpé’s poems deal with the violent situation in the Middle East, yet she is ready to bravely and playfully refuse to let death be too proud.”[6]
Wolpé’s first collection, The Scar Saloon, was lauded by Billy Collins as “poems that cast a light on some of what we all hold in common.”[11] Poet and novelist Chris Abani called the poems "political, satirical, and unflinching in the face of war, tyranny and loss ... they transmute experience into the magic of the imagined."[11]
The poems in Wolpé’s second collection, Rooftops of Tehran, were called by poet Nathalie Handal “as vibrant as they are brave,” and Richard Katrovas wrote that its publication was a “truly rare event: an important book of poetry.”[12][non-primary source needed]
Wolpé’s translations of the Iranian poet
Forugh Farrokhzad’s selected work, Sin, was awarded the Lois Roth Persian Translation Award in 2010. The judges wrote that they “found themselves experiencing Forugh’s Persian poems with new eyes.”[13] Alicia Ostriker praised the translations as “hypnotic in their beauty and force.” Willis Barnstone found them “extravagantly majestic,” and of such order that “they resurrect Forugh.”
Sholeh Wolpé and
Mohsen Emadi’s translations of
Walt Whitman’s "
Song of Myself" (آواز خويشتن) were commissioned by the University of Iowa’s International Program. They are currently on the University of Iowa’s Whitman website and will be available in print in Iran.[14]
Robert Olen Butler lauded Wolpé's anthology, Breaking the Jaws of Silence as “a deeply humane and aesthetically exhilarating collection.”[15] Wolpé's 2012 anthology, The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles, a recipient of the 2013 Midwest Book Award, includes many of Wolpé’s translations, and was called by American poet Sam Hamil a “most welcome gift” that “embraces and illuminates our deepest human bonds and hopes.”[16]
Wolpé’s Iran Edition of the Atlanta Review became that journal’s best-selling issue.[17] Wolpé is also a regional editor of Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from The Modern Middle East (edited by Reza Aslan),[18] and a contributing editor of the
Los Angeles Review of Books.[19]
Wolpé’s modern translation of The Conference of the Birds by the 12th Century Iranian Sufi mystic poet "
Attar", was lauded by PEN lauded as an “artful and exquisite modern translation.”[20] About the book,
W.W. Norton & Co writes: "Wolpé re-creates the intense beauty of the original Persian in contemporary English verse and poetic prose, fully capturing for the first time the beauty and timeless wisdom of Attar’s masterpiece for modern readers."
In 2019 Wolpé began a collaboration with composer Fahad Siadat and choreographer Andre Megerdichian, culminating in The Conference of the Birds- An Oratorio. the work garnered support form the
National Endowment for the Arts, Farhang Foundation,
Scripps College, among others.
Abacus of Loss - A Memoir in Verse is Wolpé's 2022 genre re-defining book in which Wolpé combines several genres (memoir, poetry, and reportage) to shape and deliver her story in a philosophically
pantheistic format. It does not follow the arrow of time and explores the grey areas in her (and our) inner and outer world. The outer is her story, the inner draws us in and becomes our story. "Though she’s tallying her—and our—collective losses (personally, culturally, and globally), Wolpé also expresses deep thankfulness for what we still have left."[21]
Playwright
In 2017, Wolpé’s play "Shame" was performed as part of the Women Playwrights Series (WPS) at Centenary Stage Co. in
Hackettstown, New Jersey.[22]
Her play "The Conference of the Birds" is an adaptation of 12th-century Sufi mystic,
Attar's epic poem and world premiered on November 30, 2018, at Ubuntu Theater.
The Heart of a Stranger: An Anthology of Exile Literature, edited by André Naffis-Sahely, Pushkin Press, 2019.[38]
Ink Knows No Borders, edited by Patrice Vicchione and Alyssa Rayond, Seven Stories Press, 2019.[39]
Guinda, Ángel, ed. (2018). Poetas de Otros Mundos [Poets from Other Worlds] (in Spanish). España: Olifante Ediciones de Poesía.[40]
Making Mirrors: Writing//Righting by Refugees, edited by Becky Thompson and Jehan Bseiso. Interlink Publishing Group, September 2018.[41]
The Golden Shovel Anthology (University of Arkansas Press, 2017)[42]
Others Will Enter the Gates: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences and Writing in America (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) [43]
Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, (Pacific Coast Poetry Series, 2015)[44]
Veils, Halos, and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women, (Kasva Press, 2015)[45]
Flash Fiction Funny: 82 Very Short Humorous Stories (Blue Light Press, 2013)[46]
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the March 5th, 2007, Bombing of Baghdad's "Street of the Booksellers" (PM Press, 2012)[47]
How To Free a Naked Man from a Rock: An Anthology (Red Hen Press, 2011)[48]
Sudden Flash Youth: 65 Short Short Stories (Persea Books, April 2011)[49]
^Rhyme by Rhyme, Sahba Aminikia (composer) Commissioned by Amaranth Quartet to be premiered at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. as part of Shenson Chamber Music series on May 8, 2019. Lyrics by Sholeh Wolpé based on her translation of a poem by Tahirih.
^Cicely Buckley; Patricia Frisella (2007-03-31). The Other Side of Sorrow: Poets, Speak Out About Conflict, War, and Peace. Poetry Society of New Hampshire.
ISBN9780972416719.