AIAW Member Profiles -- (S)

Meghan Nuttall Sayres is a tapestry weaver who lives with her husband, children, sheep and cat in Eastern Washington. She is author of a novel set in 19th century Iran, Anahita's Woven Riddle, an ALA Top Ten Best Books 2007 and a Book Sense Pick 2007; Weaving Tapestry in Rural Ireland; and co-author of Daughters of the Desert: Tales of Remarkable Women From the Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions.

Meghan has visited schools and taught creative writing workshops in schools in the US, Ireland, Turkey, Qatar, Iran and Uzbekistan, where she has also met with scholars, carpet weavers, dye masters and merchants to study the age-old symbolism and Sufi poetry that infuse many rugs woven throughout the Middle East.

She is at work on novels set in these countries and an anthology about Iran. For updated information about her other books and blogs visit her at: www.MeghanNuttallSayres.com,
You can also enjoy Meghan's writing and wandering at www.writingandwandering.blogspot.com and connect with her via twitter.com
(nick: meghanNsayres).

Roger Sedarat is a poet and translator. His first collection of poetry, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic (Ohio UP), won the 2007 Hollis Summers Prize. In addition to publishing articles on American poetry, Middle Eastern-American literature, and writing pedagogy, he has placed poems and translations in such journals as The New England Review, Atlanta Review, and Iranian.com. A recipient of scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a St. Botolph Society Grant, he is Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Queens College, City University of New York.

After receiving his BA at the University of Texas-Austin and an MA in English/Creative Writing at Queens College, he completed a PhD in English at Tufts University. Much of his creative writing as an Iranian-American poet involves the connection of his Middle-Eastern background to the American literary tradition, adapting Persian themes and forms into English.

His creative interests include using humor, post-modern performance, politics, and popular culture to transgress social norms and violate aesthetic expectations. He is currently working on a second collection of poetry based on the modern history of Iran, a full-length translation of twentieth century Iranian poetry, and a children’s book about nefarious dinosaurs.

Farnoosh Seifoddini received an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Post graduation, she managed to find a real “real job” despite her numerous liberal arts degrees. She keeps a day job in content development for children’s books and software. She keeps a night job writing poetry and working on her manuscript.

Farnoosh’s poetry can be found in various print and online journals. Currently resides in San Francisco and loves it!

Some Online Publications:
Sunset in Ipanema - Temenos
Dokhtar-e Amrika-i - The Iranian
Muffled Prayers - Kennesaw Review
Spring Cleaning - Kennesaw Review

Some Print Publications:
Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora - May 2006
Pre-Maternity - North American Review - March/April 2004
Elements 1 & 4 - Transfer Magazine - Spring 2004
Various poems, My America - Summer 2003
Spring Cleaning - Scribbler - January 2003

Mahbod Seraji is the author of Rooftops of Tehran. He moved to the United States in 1976 at the age of nineteen and attended the University of Iowa where he received his BS in Civil Engineering, MA in Film and Broadcasting, and Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Technology. He and his wife currently live in the San Francisco Bay area. Rooftops of Tehran is an Indie Next Notable for the month of June, a Bookreporter Bets On book for May, and the Fall 2009 selection for the One Book Villanova Program

Born in Istanbul , Solmaz Sharif holds a BA in Sociology and Women of Color Writers from U.C. Berkeley and an MFA in poetry from New York University.

Her first published poem, included in A World Between, was written at the age of 13. Since then, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, jubilat, Diagram, Gulf Coast, Atlanta Review, and PBS's Tehran Bureau among others. Between 2002-2006, Sharif studied and taught with June Jordan's Poetry for the People. She has taught creative writing at U.C. Berkeley, New York University, Goldwater Hospital, and Berkeley High School.

She is a 2011 winner of the "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize and the former managing director of The Asian American Writers' Workshop. She is also a 2011-2012 Poetry Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is working on a poetic rewrite of the US Department of Defense Dictionary.

J. Kevin Shushtari was a fellow in Fiction at Boston University where he earned an MFA in 2010. He is presently working on a novel. He lives in Farmington, Connecticut with his wife and three children. Kevin is also a practicing physician.

Born and raised in Tehran, Ari Barkeshli Siletz emigrated to the United States in 1971 at the age of 17. His book The Mullah With No Legs And Other Stories portrays Iranians as a complex and resilient people who take their historical triumphs and tragedies in humorous stride. During his childhood, Siletz traveled extensively through Iran’s towns and villages in the company of his Hamedani father and Azerbaijani mother. The author’s works draw heavily from his intimate contact with Iranians of all provinces, ethnicities and classes.

In the United States, Siletz took an old VW bus across the North American continent to get acquainted with his new homeland. The adopted name, “Siletz,” means “crooked” in the Native American language of the Siletz people, a reference to the twists and turns of the Siletz river near the Oregon coast. During his travels crisscrossing the country, Siletz took jobs as tree planter, taxi driver, farm hand, musician, appliance repairman, math tutor, social worker, and actor. The VW bus broke down irreparably in Sonoma County California, choosing the time and place for Siletz to settle and raise a family. The author, who is trained as a physicist, now runs a small company specializing in vision systems for industrial robots.

Siletz’s blog contains book reviews, film reviews, art reviews, political commentary, and interviews on Iran-related issues. The author’s current literary preoccupation is human rights in the context of Islam and the West.

www.arisiletz.com

Najva Sol is a Iranian-American writer, photographer, and multi-media artist living in San Francisco.  She was born in the DC area, and received her BA in Creative Writing from Eugene Lang The New School For Liberal Arts. Since then, she has worked at various non-profits that deal with some combination of art presenting, queer empowerment, people of color, social justice, and education. She co-founded an artist collective called The Lowbrow Society for the Arts in NYC, where she curated various underground events, including a renegade art show on a subway car. She is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at the California College of the Arts.

Her writing has been published in Look Look Magazine, Release, Inprint and more. Her other work was recently featured in the National Queer Arts Festival, Femina Potens Galleryand The Red Poppy Art House. Lowbrow Society has appeared in Nerve.com, New York Press and Time Out New York.

najvasol.wordpress.com