Sholeh Wolpé is a poet, writer, editor, and literary translator. She was born in Iran and spent most of her teen years in Trinidad and the UK before settling in the United States. A recipient of the 2013 Midwest Book Award and 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation prize, Wolpé is the author of three collections of poetry and two books of translations, and is the editor of three anthologies.The Poetry Foundation has written that "Wolpé's concise, unflinching, and often wry free verse explores violence, culture, and gender. So many of Wolpé's poems deal with the violent situation in the Middle East, yet she is ready to both bravely and playfully refuse to let death be too proud."Wolpé's first collection, The Scar Saloon, was lauded by Billy Collins as "poems that cast a light on some of what we all hold in common." Poet and novelist Chris Abani called the poems "political, satirical, and unflinching in the face of war, tyranny and loss . . . they transmute experience into the magic of the imagined."The poems in Wolpé's second collection, Rooftops of Tehran, were called by poet Nathalie Handal "as vibrant as they are brave," and Richard Katrovas wrote that its publication was a "truly rare event: an important book of poetry." In response to Wolpé's most recent collection of poems, Keeping Time With Blue Hyacinths (2013), Shelf Awareness Magazine wrote that "a gifted Iranian-American poet beautifully explores love and the loss of love, beauty and war and the ghosts of the past."Wolpé's translations of the iconic Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad's selected work was awarded the prestigious Lois Roth Persian Translation Award in 2010. The judges wrote that they "found themselves experiencing Forugh's Persian poems with new eyes." Alicia Ostriker praised the translations as "hypnotic in their beauty and force." Willis Barnstone found them "extravagantly majestic," and of such order that "they resurrect Forugh." Wolpé and Mohsen Emadi's translations of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself (آواز خويشتن) were commissioned by the University of Iowa's International Program. They are currently on University of Iowa's Whitman website and will soon be available in print in Iran.Wolpé's anthologies have received critical acclaim, as well. Robert Olen Butler lauded Breaking the Jaws of Silence as "a deeply humane and aesthetically exhilarating collection." The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles, a recipient of the 2013 Midwest Book Award, includes many of Wolpé's own translations, and was called by Sam Hamil a "most welcome gift" that "embraces and illuminates our deepest human bonds and hopes." Joy Harjo wrote, "What demon can withstand against these beautiful and truthful singers? What heart will not open when they hear these poems?" Wolpé's Iran Edition of the Atlanta Review became that journal's best-selling issue; the poet is also a regional editor of Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from The Modern Middle East (edited by Reza Aslan), and a contributing editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books.Wolpé's writings have been translated into several languages and her work is included in numerous American and international anthologies of poetry and fiction. She has taught poetry and literary translation at Stonecoast's MFA program and has participated in many festivals, international programs, and university events. For more information about Sholeh Wolpe please visit: www.sholehwolpe.com