Sholeh Wolpé

Sholeh Wolpé
photo by Jordan Elgrably
Native name	شعله ولپی
Born	1962 (age 61–62) Tehran, Pahlavi Iran
Occupation	Poet, playwright, librettist, editor, literary translator
Alma mater	George Washington University, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University
Website
www.sholehwolpe.com

Sholeh Wolpé (Persian: شعله ولپی) is an Iranian-born American poet, playwright, librettist and literary translator. She was born in Iran and grew up there until the age of13. After that she lived in Trinidad and England during her teenage years before settling in the United States. She lives in Spain and California.

Biography

Sholeh Wolpé was born in 1962 in Tehran, Pahlavi Iran. where she lived until age 13. She was then sent to Trinidad to live with her aunt and grandmother. After that she was sent to a boarding school in Eastbourne, UK (Moira House School). She later continued her higher education in the United Stages where she continued living after the 1979 Iranian revolution. [1] She lived in Washington DC, Virginia, Chicago, Redlands, and Los Angeles. She was the inaugural Writer-In-Residence at UCLA. Presently she lives with her husband, sociologist Edward Telles, in Barcelona and Irvine where she is the Writer-In-Residence at University of California, Irvine.

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 and established her as a celebrated re-creator of Persian poetry.

Literary career

Wolpé began her literary career as a poet. After the publication of her first book, "The Scar Saloon" (Red Hen Press), American poet Galway Kinnell encouraged her to translate Forugh Farrokhzad's work. Wolpé took his advice and became the first bi-lingual and bi-cultural female poet from Iran to translate Farrokhzad's work into English. Her book, "Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad" (University of Arkansas Press) went on to receive 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation Award from Lois Roth Foundation. The judges wrote that they “found themselves experiencing Forugh’s Persian poems with new eyes.”

Believing that translation is a service to her fellow poets, Wolpé continued writing and publishing collections of her own poetry, as well as anthologies and translations.[2] In 2007 Wolpé wrote turned her attention to the stage. Her first play, SHAME ( also alternately titled The Silver Bangle)went on to become a finalist or semi finalist at multiple important theater festivals and was later published in a World Drama anthology "New Iranian Plays" by Aurora Metro Books in the U.K. [3] She went on to write a play on racism, LET ME IN , and on extremism HOLY CORONA.

In 2005 Wolpé turned her attention to Iranian poetic masterpiece The Conference of the Birds by the 12th Century Iranian Sufi mystic poet "Attar". Her preliminary work won the support of PEN with PEN Heim Translation Grant, lauded as an “artful and exquisite modern translation.” . Soon after it was acquired by W.W. Norton & Co and published in 2007. "The Conference of the Birds" as re-creation by Sholeh Wolpé went on to inspire numerous artists, choreographers scholars and writers. [4]

Wolpé's sole translation from English to Persian was commissioned by the University of Iowa International Program. Sholeh Wolpé and Mohsen Emadi’s translations of Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself" (آواز خويشتن) is currently on the University of Iowa’s Whitman website.

In 2017 Oakland Theater Project (then known as Ubuntu Theater) in Oakland, California, commissioned Wolpé to adapt The Conference of the Birds for the stage. The play went on their stage in 2017 in the Inferno Theater in Berkeley, California, in 2018 on the Ubuntu stage . In 2022 it was staged by the Northern Illinois University School of Theater and Dance.

In 2019 Wolpé began a collaboration with composer Fahad Siadat and choreographer Andre Megerdichian. Their work culminated in "The Conference of the Birds- A Movement-Driven Oratorio". The work garnered support form the National Endowment for the Arts, Farhang Foundation, Scripps College, among others and went on stage in Pasadena at The Noise Withinand in Los Angeles at The Broad Theater.

Wolpé continued her work with composers such as Aida Shirazi (Language of Loss ) and Saunder Choi (Song of Exile)[5], as well as providing lyrics for Jazz: Effervescence, or Grammy nominated San Gabriel 7’s third jazz album, Lost My Heart, featuring Australian vocalist Ingrid James.

Sholeh Wolpé is also a performer. Her "Seven Valleys" commissioned by The Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles was presented to sold out audiences in 2022.[6]

Wolpé's Memoir, "Abacus of Loss - A Memoir in Verse" (University of Arkansas Press) is her 2022 genre re-defining book in which she combines several genres (memoir, poetry, and reportage) to shape and deliver her story. It was lauded by The Mary Sue journal as "“One of 8 Beautiful, Contemporary Novels Written in Verse That Make Poetry Accessible”. Excerpts from the book have been adapted for film and music.[7]

Playwright and Lyricist

2023 — Brooklyn Art Song Society, Abacus of Loss – Art Song , composed by Aida Shirazi, text by Sholeh Wolpé. – Premiere: Brooklyn, Newyork

2023 —Resonance Collective, The Conference of the Birds album

2023 — Arlington Choir Song of Exile, libretto: Sholeh Wolpé Composer: Saunder Choi, Premiered in Arlington Va

2023 — And Here I am, A lonely Woman. Composer: Huba de Graaf, Netherlands

2022 —The Getty Villa Museum — THE SEVEN VALLEYS, an original commissioned musical drama utilizing text from Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. By Sholeh Wolpé (event photos)

2022 —The Broad Stage, Santa Monica — World premiere of THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS,

A MOVEMENT-DRIVEN ORATORIO composed by Fahad Siadat, Libretto Sholeh Wolpé

2022 —Northern Illinois University, School of Theater and Dance —THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2022 —Scripps College, School of music — Soft premiere of THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, an ORATORIO composed by Fahad Siadat, Libretto Sholeh Wolpé

2021 —Town Street Theater, Los Angeles— BROTHERS AT THE CANADIAN BORDER

2021 —Long Intermediate School, Bryan, TX — LET ME IN

2020 —The Alternative Theater Company, “Believeability” Festival — HOLY CORONA

2018 —Inferno Theater, Berkeley, Ca — THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2018 —Oakland Theater Project, Oakland, Ca — THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2017 —Centenary Stage Women Playwrights Series — staged reading SHAME

2015 —New Ohio Theater, New York City — staged reading SHAME

2013 —The Marilyn Monroe Theater, West Hollywood — staged reading SHAME

2007 —Open Fist Theater, Los Angeles — Staged reading SHAME

Publications

Poetry

• Wolpé, Sholeh (2004). The Scar Saloon: Poems. Red Hen Press. ISBN 9781888996036.
• Wolpé, Sholeh (2007). Rooftops of Tehran. Red Hen Press. ISBN 9781597091107.
• Wolpé, Sholeh (2013). Keeping Time with Blue Hyacinths: Poems. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781557286284.
• Wolpé, Sholeh (2017). Cómo escribir una canción de amor. Colección Olifante. Olifante Ediciones de Poesía. ISBN 9788494674815.
• Wolpé, Sholeh (2018). The Outsider. Vol. 14 of IPSI chapbook. International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI). Australia: Recent Work Press, University of Canberra. ISBN 9781740884792.
• Wolpé, Sholeh (2022). Abacus of Loss. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-68226-198-9.

Anthologies

• Aslan, Reza, ed. (2010). Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. Sholeh Wolpe (regional editor). W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393080704.
• Atlanta Review, volume XVI — Iran Issue 2010 guest edited by Sholeh Wolpe
• Wolpé, Sholeh, ed. (2012). The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9781609173296.
• Wolpé, Sholeh, ed. (2013). Breaking the Jaws of Silence: Sixty American Poets Speak to the World. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781557286291.

Translations

• Farrokhzad, Forugh (2007). Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad. Translated by Wolpé, Sholeh. Alicia Ostriker (forward). University of Arkansas. ISBN 978-1-55728-948-3.
• Doostdar, Naeimeh; Ghahreman, Azita; Madani, Nasrin (2015). Blue Swedish for Nowruz: Short Stories from Sweden. Translated by Wolpé, Sholeh. Dracopis Press. ISBN 9789187341076.
• Attar (2017). The Conference of the Birds. Translated by Wolpé, Sholeh. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393292190.

External links

• Sholeh Wolpe (2012-05-12). The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and its Exiles. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9781611860344.
• "Main, 2012, apr and forbidden | Iranian Lawyers, Doctors, Psychologists, Events and more". Iranian.com. 31 May 2010. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• Marissa Bell Toffoli (31 October 2011). "Interview With Writer Sholeh Wolpé". Words With Writers. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "June 2010". Poets Against the War. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "Sholeh Wolpe | Poets & Writers". Pw.org. 2016-11-13. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "California State University, Chico - Events and Calendars". Csuchico.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "Arts Insider News" (PDF). Inner-cityarts.org. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "Sholeh Wolpe, reknowned{sic} Iranian Poet and Editor to Speak at SNC | Sierra Nevada College". Sierranevada.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
• "A Reading Series in Los Angeles: October 2006". Rhapsodomancy.org. 2006-12-17. Retrieved 2017-03-29.