Forugh Farrokhzad (author) was born in 1935 to a middle-class family of seven in Tehran, Iran. In a society where women have historically had few rights, she was married at sixteen to a man fifteen years her senior, divorced within three years and was forced to relinquish her only son to her husband. She never remarried, instead pursuing an independent life-style and a career in poetry. Her expressions of physical and emotional intimacy, much lacking in Persian women’s poetry up to that point, placed her at the center of controversy, even among the intellectuals of the time. She was subjected to tabloid gossip and portrayed as a woman of loose moral character. Considered a poet of great audacity and extraordinary talent, Farokhzad’s poems are today much loved and revered by Iranians, and she is regarded by many as one of the most important female poets in modern Persian literature. On Feb 14, 1967, her car was struck by a military vehicle killing her instantly. She was 32 years old.
Sholeh Wolpé (translator) is a poet, writer and literary translator. Her recent awards include the 2013 Midwest Book Award for Forbidden: Poems from Iran and It’s Exiles, and the 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation prize for Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad. Sholeh’s eight publications include three collections of poetry, three anthologies and two books of translations. Her most recent book of poems, Keeping Time with Blue Hyacinths, was released last March by the University of Arkansas Press. Sholeh’s co-translation of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself into Persian was recently released by the University of Iowa’s International Program. www.sholehwolpe.com
Alejandro Meneses (author) was born in Altzayanca, Tlaxcala, Mexico, in 1959 or 1960. Though he studied literature at the state university in Puebla, as a writer, he was largely self-taught. Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald were among his major influences. In addition to being one of the most highly-regarded writers of his time in Mexico, Meneses edited several literary journals, taught, and gave short-story workshops. His collected body of work consists of four volumes of short stories, Días extraños (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla [BUAP], 1987)—from which “The Crystal Ship” is taken—Ángela y los ciegos (Cal y Arena, 2000), Vidas lejanas (ABZ Editores), Tan lejos, tan cerca (Ediciones de Educación y Cultura) (published posthumously), and two anthologies, Casa vacía (LunArena, 2005) and Noche adentro (BUAP, 2005). His stories also appear in collective anthologies. Alejandro Meneses loved mole poblano and rock and roll, particularly The Doors. His first short story collection is named after a Doors song—Días Extraños (Strange Days)—as are three of the four stories it contains: “El Barco de Cristal” (“The Crystal Ship”), “El Hombre de la Puerta de Atrás” (“Back Door Man”) and “El Fin de la Noche” (“End of the Night”). He died in Puebla in July of 2005 of alcohol-related complications.
Annie Crawford (translator) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1952, and lived in New York City with her mother and grandmother, an editor at Harcourt Brace, until she was four. Her grandmother, Margaret Marshall, threw legendary parties for the authors and poets she worked with, and Annie can claim the distinction of having been chucked under the chin as a toddler by W. H. Auden, Katherine Anne Porter, Randall Jarrell and other mid-century luminaries. Not surprisingly, her earliest dream was to be an editor. Somewhere along the way, as it is wont to do, life took her on a detour, and she ended up majoring in Latin American Studies and Spanish in college and grad school, and living in Puebla, Mexico for twenty years. There, she taught English and Spanish grammar, composition, conversation and phonetics at local universities, translated, and wrote short stories. Her novels include The Ring of Leilani, a middle-grade/young adult novel, The Curse of the Jade Amulet and a travel memoir, Twenty-seven Scoops of Gelato.
Pierre Chappuis (author) was born in Tavannes (Canton Bern), Switzerland, in 1930. He is an essential French-language poet in a generation that includes Philippe Jaccottet, Yves Bonnefoy, André du Bouchet, Jacques Dupin, and Jacques Réda. His many published works include collections of critical essays, poetic prose, and poetry. Among his most recent books, all published by the Éditions José Corti, are Dans la foulée (2007), Comme un léger sommeil (2009), and Muettes emergences (2011). Distance aveugle (2000) and À la portée de la voix (2002), also brought out by Corti, are collections of short poetic prose. For his writing, he has won the two most prestigious Swiss literary prizes: the Schiller Prize in 1997 and the Grand Prix C.F. Ramuz in 2005. He lives in Neuchâtel.
John Taylor (translator) has recently translated books by Jacques Dupin (Of Flies and Monkeys, Bitter Oleander Press), Philippe Jaccottet (And, Nonetheless, Chelsea), Pierre-Albert Jourdan (The Straw Sandals, Chelsea), and Louis Calaferte (The Violet Blood of the Amethyst, Chelsea). His most recent collection of personal writings is If Night is Falling, published by the Bitter Oleander Press in 2012. He is also the author of the three-volume essay collection, Paths to Contemporary French Literature (Transaction), and Into the Heart of European Poetry (Transaction). Born in Des Moines in 1952, Taylor has lived in France since 1977.
TRANSLATION
Robert Sheppard was born in 1955, and his next book The Given/ Arrival/When is a fractured account of his life. A Translated Man, the subject of the interview here, is published by Shearsman. Previous volumes from Shearsman include Warrant Error and Berlin Bursts. His poetry is widely published in magazines and anthologised in volumes like Reality Street Book of Sonnets and he reads poetry at many venues nationally. He lives in Liverpool and works at Edge Hill University. He has a blog at www.robertsheppard.blogspot.com and a website at www.robertsheppard.weebly.com where, if you want to read more, there is more.
Alan Titley is the author of novels, stories, plays, poetry and film scripts. His essays are available as Nailing Theses: selected essays (Lagan Press, Belfast, 2011). Emeritus Professor of Modern Irish in University College Cork, and former Head of the Irish Department at St Patrick's College, Dublin City University, he writes a weekly column on cultural and current affairs for The Irish Times.
