Sholeh Wolpé

Sholeh Wolpé is an Iranian-born American poet, editor, playwright, and literary translator.

She was born in Iran, and lived in Trinidad and England during her teenage years, before settling in the United States.

She lives in Los Angeles.

Sholeh Wolpé was born in 1962 in Tehran, Pahlavi Iran, and spent most of her teen years in Trinidad and the United Kingdom before settling in the United States.

She previously lived in Redlands, California.

She attended George Washington University and received a B.A. degree in Radio/TV/Film.

Followed by studies at Northwestern University and received a M.A. degree in Radio/TV/Film and Johns Hopkins University and received a MHS in Public Health.

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 bravely and playfully refuse to let death be too proud.”

Wolpe's literary translations have garnered several prestigious awards.

Wolpé’s translations of the Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad’s selected work, Sin, was awarded the 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.”

Sholeh 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 the University of Iowa’s Whitman website and will be available in print in Iran.

Robert Olen Butler lauded Wolpé's anthology, Breaking the Jaws of Silence as “a deeply humane and aesthetically exhilarating collection.” Wolpé's 2012 anthology, The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles, a recipient of the 2013 Midwest Book Award, includes many of Wolpé’s translations, and was called by American poet Sam Hamil a “most welcome gift” that “embraces and illuminates our deepest human bonds and hopes.”

Wolpé’s Iran Edition of the Atlanta Review became that journal’s best-selling issue.

Wolpé 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 modern translation of The Conference of the Birds by the 12th Century Iranian Sufi mystic poet "Attar", was lauded by PEN lauded as an “artful and exquisite modern translation.” About the book, W.W. Norton & Co writes: "Wolpé re-creates the intense beauty of the original Persian in contemporary English verse and poetic prose, fully capturing for the first time the beauty and timeless wisdom of Attar’s masterpiece for modern readers."

A recipient of 2014 PEN Heim Translation Fund grant, 2014 Hedgebrook Residency, the 2013 Midwest Book Award, and 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation prize, Wolpé literary work includes five collections of poetry, four books of translations, three anthologies and several plays.

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 2017, Wolpé’s play "Shame" was performed as part of the Women Playwrights Series (WPS) at Centenary Stage Co. in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

Her play "The Conference of the Birds" is an adaptation of 12th-century Sufi mystic, Attar's epic poem and world premiered on November 30, 2018, at Ubuntu Theater.

Wolpe's poems and translations have been set to music by various composers, including Hubba De Graaf, Fahad Siadat, Shawn Crouch, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Sahba Aminikia, and Mamak Khadem, and Sahba Motallebi.

She has written lyrics for American jazz band San Gabriel 7.

Wolpe's work can be found in the following anthologies:

In 2019 Wolpé began a collaboration with composer Fahad Siadat and choreographer Andre Megerdichian, culminating in The Conference of the Birds- An Oratorio.

the work garnered support form the National Endowment for the Arts, Farhang Foundation, Scripps College, among others.

Abacus of Loss - A Memoir in Verse is Wolpé's 2022 genre re-defining book in which Wolpé combines several genres (memoir, poetry, and reportage) to shape and deliver her story in a philosophically pantheistic format.

It does not follow the arrow of time and explores the grey areas in her (and our) inner and outer world.

The outer is her story, the inner draws us in and becomes our story.

"Though she’s tallying her—and our—collective losses (personally, culturally, and globally), Wolpé also expresses deep thankfulness for what we still have left."

Wolpé was named a 2020–2021 "Cultural Trailblazer" by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.

She is a Writer-In-Residence at University of California, Irvine.