On Persian Poetry and the Art of Translation (Ahmad Shamlou’s Centennial)

Niloufar Talebi’s new book, a bilingual edition of Ahmad Shamlou, one of Iran’s most influential twentieth-century poets, showcases her skill and dedication as a translator and cultural worker. In Elegies of the Earth, published to mark the poet’s centennial, Talebi brings Shamlou’s revolutionary voice of resistance and modernity to English readers. Join Maryam Ala Amjadi, Iranian poet, scholar, and City of Asylum Fellow, for a conversation with Talebi on Shamlou’s enduring legacy, the power of poetry as witness, the craft of translation, and the vital role of verse in shaping and preserving Iran’s sociocultural and historical consciousness.

Niloufar Talebi is an author, educator, producer, and multidisciplinary storyteller whose work spans literature, opera, performance, and cultural translation. Her practice is rooted in reinvention—transforming language and lived experience into art that awakens, stirs, and liberates.

Niloufar is the editor and translator of Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou (World Poetry, 2025), a sweeping centennial edition of Iran’s iconic twentieth-century poet of liberty, whose work shaped modern Persian poetry.

Her memoir Self-Portrait in Bloom (l’Aleph, 2019), praised as “a hybrid wonder” (The Rumpus), combines personal narrative with her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize–nominated Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou. The book inspired the acclaimed opera Abraham in Flames (2019), which she commissioned, produced, presented, and co-created in collaboration with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and director Roy Rallo.

Whether through writing, performance, or teaching, Niloufar’s work is an invitation to imagine boldly, connect deeply, and transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Maryam Ala Amjadi is an Iranian writer, translator, and researcher. She is the author of two poetry collections, a poetry chapbook, and the translator of a selection of Raymond Carver’s poems into Persian. She won the ‘Young Generation Poet’ Prize in the inaugural Yinchuan International Poetry Festival in China and was a writer-in-residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her short story “The Ice Seller of Hell” won the 2024 Elizabeth Alexander Award and will be published in the Meridians journal (Duke University Press). Ala Amjadi was previously a writer for the Tehran Times Daily, where she founded and wrote a weekly page dedicated to the socio-cultural nuances of Iran. In 2017, she earned a joint PhD in interdisciplinary literary studies as an Erasmus Mundus fellow from Kent (UK) and Porto (Portugal) universities. Her poems and translations of contemporary Iranian poets have been anthologized internationally, and her poetry has been translated into multiple languages, including Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Hindi. Her latest book, Where Is the Mouth of That Word? (Selected Poems) was published by Poetrywala in 2022.

Parking/getting there: Parking on UNLV’s campus is free and open to all after 7pm; “reserved” parking spots are enforced 24 hours a day, but you may park in any “staff,” “student,” or paid spots. To find the Rogers Literature & Law Building, please turn onto East Harmon Ave and take it as far as you can into campus. We encourage you to park in Lot I or Lot J as they’re closest to our building.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Black Mountain Institute