Solmaz Sharif
Solmaz Sharif | |
---|---|
Istanbul, Turkey | |
Occupation | Poet |
Language | English |
Nationality | American[1] |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley New York University |
Genre | Poetry |
Notable works | Look |
Website | |
solmazsharif |
Solmaz Sharif (Persian: سولماز شریف; born 1983) is an Iranian-American poet. Her debut poetry collection, Look, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley.
Early life and education
Sharif was born in
At sixteen years old, Sharif attended an Iranian Feminist Conference, facilitated by Angela Davis.[3] Here, she discovered the phrase and label "women of color", which Davis used to refer to the audience of women before her. This label was a punctum moment for Sharif, as this is the phrase that she had been searching for to identify with, and to embrace.
Wherever she went, Sharif felt out of place, never feeling included or acknowledged by those around her. This feeling of exile is one of the bigger influences of her "exilic intellectual" prose: looking at something from the outside so as to "question and interrogate", a stance Sharif also brings to works of art or literature.
Sharif received her BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MFA degree from New York University.[4]
Career and recognition
In 2011, Sharif was awarded the "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Sharif received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013.[5] She has also received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Stanford University, and the Poetry Foundation. Sharif won the Theodore H. Holmes '51 and Bernice Holmes National Poetry Prize.[6] Sharif has given numerous readings around the US, such as the prestigious Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.[7] Sharif was one of the judges for 2023 National Book Award for Poetry.[8]
Look, Sharif’s debut collection of poetry, was a finalist for the 2016
As of 2023, Sharif teaches at UC Berkeley.
Influences and themes
Some early influences include poems by
Look, Sharif's first book, "asks us to see the ongoing costs of war as the unbearable losses of human lives and also the insidious abuses against our everyday speech."[12] Look draws on the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, and challenges readers to confront the war's effects on language.[13]
Reception
Look was reviewed favorably by The Los Angeles Review as an account of war's effects on culture and language.[14]
Customs: Poems, her second collection, considers the contingent status of immigrant women in the US; the book has received positive criticism by Kamran Javadizadeh in The New York Review of Books.[15]
Bibliography
Poetry collections
- Look: Poems. Graywolf Press, 2016. ISBN 9781555977443
- Customs: Poems. Graywolf Press, 2022. ISBN 9781644450796
Essay
- Persis M. Karim; Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami (1999). A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans. George Braziller. ISBN 978-0-8076-1445-7.[16]
Publications
- Print Publications
- "My Father's Shoes" in A World Between
- "Your Style" in Spaces Between Us
- "Suitcases" in The Forbidden
- Three poems in jubilat
- Two poems in Gulf Coast
- "Break-up" in Black Warrior Review
- "Personal Effects" in Kenyon Review
- Online Publications
- "Drone" at Witness
- "Special Events for Homeland Security" and "dear intelligence journal" at Sink Review
- "Suitcases" and "Theater" at PBS's Tehran Bureau
- "Reaching Guantanamo" at Paper Bag
- "lay" at DIAGRAM
- "Safe House" at Boston Review
- "Look" at PEN America
- "Perception Management: An Abridged List of Operations" at The New Republic
- "Vulnerability Study" at Poetry Magazine
- "Desired Appreciation" at Kenyon Review
- "Exile Elegy" at Lit Hub
- "Civilization Spurns the Leopard" and "Force Visibility" at Granta
- "Social Skills Training" at Buzzfeed Reader
- "Patronage" at The Yale Review
Awards
- From 2012 to 2014 she was awarded the Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.[17]
- She won the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.[18]
- She won the 2014 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.[19]
- She is the former managing director at the Asian American Writers' Workshop.
- She won the 2017 PEN Center Literary Award for Poetry.[20]
- She won the 2017 American Book Award for Look.[21]
References
- ^ "Executive Action Leaves Green Card Holders Abroad with Questions". NPR.org.
- ^ a b Clemmons, Zinzi (27 July 2016). "The Role of the Poet: An Interview with Solmaz Sharif". www.theparisreview.org. Retrieved 2017-03-25.
- ^ a b c d Clemmons, Zinzi (2016-07-27). "The Role of the Poet: An Interview with Solmaz Sharif". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ a b Poetry Foundation Staff (August 27, 2023). "Solmaz Sharif". Poetry Foundation.
- ^ "Solmaz Sharif | NEA". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 2017-03-25.
- ^ "Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts Announces Recipient of the Holmes National Poetry Prize". Lewis Center for the Arts. 2017-07-17. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "Solmaz Sharif Reads at Bread Loaf". New England Review. 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "2023 National Book Award Longlists Announced".
- ^ "LOOK". SOLMAZ SHARIF. 2015-12-20. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "Solmaz Sharif". english.berkeley.edu.
- ^ "New faculty in ASU English shows sustained commitment to charter values". 28 August 2019.(August 28, 2019)
- ^ "Look, by Solmaz Sharif, 2016 National Book Award Finalist, Poetry". www.nationalbook.org. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "Washington Post Reviews Solmaz Sharif's Look and More by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "Book Review: Look by Solmaz Sharif - The Los Angeles Review". The Los Angeles Review. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ Javadizadeh, Kamran (2022-04-21). "In Between States: Customs, by Solmaz Sharif". The New York Review of Books. 69 (7): 16–20.
- JSTOR 20343474.
- ^ "Stegner Fellowship – Current Stegner Fellows « Stanford Creative Writing Program". creativewriting.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards". www.ronajaffefoundation.org. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ "Solmaz Sharif Wins 2017 PEN Center Literary Award for Poetry by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2017-10-28. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "2017 American Book Awards announced! | Before Columbus Foundation". www.beforecolumbusfoundation.com. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
External links
- Clemmons, Zinzi (27 July 2016). "The Role of the Poet: An Interview with Solmaz Sharif". The Paris Review. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
- "Eileen Myles and Solmaz Sharif: A Conversation Across Generations". Poets.org. 13 May 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
- "Solmaz Sharif". The Kenyon Review. 7 June 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2023.