Shams Langroodi, an Iranian poet, was born in 1951 in Langrood, a coastal town on the Caspian Sea. In 1981 he was arrested as a political activist and served a six-month sentence.

Sholeh Wolpé (translator)

Sholeh Wolpé is the author of Rooftops of Tehran, Sin—Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, and The Scar Saloon. She was awarded the Lois Roth Prize in 2010 by the International Society of Iranian Studies. She is the associate editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (Norton) and the guest editor of Atlanta Review (2010 Iran issue). Her poems, translations, essays and reviews have appeared in scores of literary journals, periodicals and anthologies worldwide, and have been translated into several languages. Sholeh was born in Iran and presently lives in Los Angeles. For more, visit her website

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