I must have been about ten when my mother and I were called into a cubicle at the American embassy in India, where we had traveled from Iran as part of our visa application, and in light of the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington. The official, whom I only recall to have […]
The End of Romanticism in Tehran Read More »
My mother picks up the pestle and mortar and does to saffron what the clerics have done to her country/ pours in steaming water till the liquid in the bowl becomes the Caspian swallowing the sun/ it smells like a home I have not returned to in 10 years/ saffron/ pound for pound/ the most
Digging through trash, I smell the whiskey on Shamlu’s breath. It’s not so strange. He once stood here recording the rhythm of the butcher’s cleaver like a journalist for Satan’s newspaper. In the ash of lilies and the charred remains of tortured canaries, I open a tin can of dried vegetables, find a beating heart.
At the Same Dead End Read More »
There are public pools in Tehran, Shiraz, and Isfahan, no doubt elsewhere in Iran, too, but those are the cities I visited at the end of 2015. Before I left for Khomeini Airport, I had discovered the existence of a Jewish sports center in Tehran, a place to swim where my last name might gain
Why I Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review Fiction Reader Elinam Agbo introduces Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar’s story “Second Slice of Darkness,” from our Spring 2019 Issue: Iran. So often, we want stories to immediately declare their secrets. We are as impatient in reading as we are in listening. In “Second Slice of Darkness,” Mehri awaits her
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Why I Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review Reader Michael M. Weinstein introduces Sohrab Sepehri’s poem “Toward the Image of the Friend,” Translated by Franklin Lewis, from our Spring 2019 Issue: Iran. The poems of Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) occupy a special place in the history of Persian poetry, and in the current issue of MQR, which aims to give
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Why I Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review Fiction Reader Elinam Agbo introduces Dena Afrasiabi’s story “Ayatollahland,” from our Spring 2019 Issue: Iran. Welcome to Ayatollahland, an Iran-inspired theme park in Houston, Texas, or as Dena Afrasiabi’s narrator puts it: “a place for the wistful, disconnected members of my parents’ generation to relive their pre-revolution days.”
It’s arguable that in 1971 the Shah of Iran himself ignited the revolution that overthrew his regime eight years later. In a week-long series of ostentatious, garish festivities, the Shah celebrated the 2,500th year of the Foundation of the Imperial State of Iran, an event no one thought relevant except himself. He commissioned the building
A Note From the Editor Read More »
Our Spring 2019 Issue is here! Featuring Essays by Salar Abdoh, Sandy Feinstein, M.R. Ghanoonparvar, Mojgan Ghazirad, Mason Jabbari, Habibe Jafarian, Amy Motlagh, and Kusha Sefat Fiction by Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar, Javad Afhami, Dena Afrasiabi, Amir Ahmadi Arian, Aliyeh Ataei, and Nilofar Shidmehr Poetry by Reza Afazali, Qeysar Aminpur, Vahe Armen, Armen Davoudian, Leila Emery, Mohammad Reza Shafi’i Kadkani, Saba Keramati, Haji Khavari, Saïdeh Pakravan, Arash Saedinia, Amir Safi, Mo H Saidi, Sayyed Ali Salehi, H.E. Sayeh, Roger Sedarat, Sohrab Sepehri, Fatemeh
MQR Issue 57:6 | Spring 2019 Read More »
Purchase MQR 57:6 (Spring 2019) — our special issue on Iran — in print or as a downloadable PDF. ___________________________________________________________________________________ SALAR ABDOH |THE ALCOVE | translation, |LIES, FAME, MEMORY, ILLNESS, AND THE THEATER OF REZA ABDOH | essay, |BEDTIME | translation, |THE INGRID BERGMAN PRINCIPLE | translation SALAR ABDOH is the author of the novels The Poet Game, Opium,
Meet Our Contributors, MQR Spring 2019, Special Issue on Iran Read More »
