Sholeh Wolpe

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.” About her new translations of Iranian Sufi mystic Attar, who Rumi considered a master, Literary Hub writes: "Sholeh Wolpé’s stunning new translation—the first in over 30 years—renders Attar’s engaging, singular voice with wit and flourish.” Wolpe's translations of Iran's rebel poet Forugh Farrokhzad is considered the most accurate and musical. Her translations in Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad was awarded the 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation. In their citation the judges wrote: “In Wolpé’s fresh and vital translation, a musical and compelling English version that draws the reader along and captures a sense of the exquisitely balanced pacing of Farrokhzad’s language, and the immediacy and authenticity of her voice, the members of the Lois Roth jury found themselves experiencing Forugh’s Persian poems with new eyes."

Sholeh Wolpe studied at George Washington University, Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is belletristic literature, poetry and drama. Distinctions recorded are Lois Roth Translation Prize.

• Name — Sholeh Wolpé • Native Name — شعله ولپی • Birthplace — Tehran, Iran • Occupation — Poet, author, playwright, librettist, editor, literary translator • Alma Mater — George Washington University, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University • Website — www.sholehwolpe.com • Born — 1962

Sholeh Wolpé was born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran where she lived until age 13. She was then sent to Trinidad to live with her aunt and grandmother. She was later sent to a boarding school in Eastbourne, UK (Moira House School) where she completed her high school. She continued her higher education in the United States. She lived in Washington DC, Virginia, Chicago, Redlands, and Los Angeles. \ In 2018 Wolpé became 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.

-Attar- The Invisible Sun, Sholeh Wolpé, Harper Collins, August 2025 -Iran + 100, Stories from a Century After the Coup, story: "Tooth for a tooth" story by Sholeh Wolpe, Comma Press, 2025 -Ábaco de la Pérdida, poemas, Sholeh Wolpé, Visor Libros, Spain, June 2025 -Abacus of Loss—a memoir in verse, University of Arkansas Press, March 2022 -The Outsider, Poems, Recent Works Press, University of Canberra, Australia, 2018 -The Conference of the Birds, Attar, translated from Persian to English by Sholeh Wolpé. W. W. Norton & Co, March 2017 -Cómo Escribir una Canción de Amor, Poemas, Olifante Press, Spain, 2017 -Keeping Time with Blue Hyacinths, Poems, University of Arkansas Press, 2013. -Breaking the Jaws of Silence—Sixty American Poets Speak to the World, edited by Sholeh Wolpé, University of Arkansas Press, 2013. -The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and its Exiles, Sholeh Wolpé, editor and translator of most of the poems in the anthology, Michigan State University Press, 2012. -Walt Whitman: Song of Myself, (Nashreh Naw, Iran), co-translated from English to Persian by Sholeh Wolpé and Mohsen Emadi, Commissioned by The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, for Whitman Web Project: 2012-2013. -Atlanta Review: 2010 Iran Issue, editor and translator of some of the poems, Atlanta Review, 2010. -Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscape from the Modern Middle East, Sholeh Wolpé, regional editor and translator of selected pieces; edited by Reza Aslan, W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. -Rooftops of Tehran, Poems, Red Hen Press, 2008. -Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, edited and translated from Persian to English by Sholeh Wolpé, University of Arkansas Press, 2007. -The Scar Saloon, Poems, Red Hen Press, 2004.