Another Birth

Forugh Farrokhzad is a mainstay of the Iranian canon but her influence on the literary and cinematic traditions of Iran remains overlooked by Western readers. Born in 1934 and heralded as the “Iranian Sylvia Plath”; Forugh created an immense poetic oeuvre alive with themes of passion, sensuality, grief, loneliness and self-determination.

Forugh was branded both a pariah and a hero for her brazenly feminist politics. In her twenties, she became a pioneer of first poetry then film, shocking audiences with frank explorations of female desire and subjugation. But Forugh’s career was cut short in 1967 when, at just thirty-two, she died in a car accident. Following the Islamic Revolution, only censored editions of Forugh’s work have been legally available in Iran.

Finally available in English, Another Birth celebrates a poet who forever altered the course of Iranian literature and whose impact will be felt for generations.