Podcast 62: Persis Karim on Literature of the Iranian Diaspora

“Literature, whether it’s poetry or fiction or non-fiction, offers a different kind of perspective, often one that’s more rooted in the human story, as opposed to the governmental, political narrative that I think is the sort of pervasive narrative that people hear all the time,” literature professor and poet Persis Karim tells us. In today’s podcast, Karim talks about the literature of the Iranian diaspora and the creative restrictions on writers within Iran. She also reads us a poem she wrote, based on true events, called “The Execution of Atafeh.”

Persis Karim, poet, professor, and editor, will be in New York City on December 4th at the Asia Society for an event called “Shattering the Stereotypes: Iranian Americans in Fiction.” She’ll be in discussion with three other Iranian-American writers. For more on this event, go to asiasociety.org. Her latest anthology, “Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American writers,” is available now. You can also learn more about her on her website at persiskarim.com.