Nilofar Shidmehr

Between Lives Nilofar Shidmehr

?In this stirring collection Between Lives, Shidmehr?s direct voice and unflinching gaze puts her among such great activist poets as Martin Espada, Dionne Brand, and Pablo Neruda. With a clear gaze and arresting imagery, Shidmehr brings to light the violence and injustice of women?s lives in Iran and in the diaspora. Fully wrought and deeply personal, this is a necessary book by an accomplished writer.? ~Elizabeth Bachinsky , Governor General's Award Nominee ?Between Lives is a collection preoccupied with a life in exile from a country where ?you saw the tempest approaching/and if they stayed there, they, too/would drown.? These poems are the untold stories of contemporary Persian women's lives?lives portrayed with intimacy and lyricism, despite their subjugation. These are poetic meditations that only a poet simultaneously intimate with a place, and exiled from it, can offer. In this book, men and women are like ?fire and cotton,? and must be kept apart; they are ?flammable with the slightest spark.? Nilofar Shidmehr's poems burn with a fierce, haunting fire.? ~Rachel Rose, winner of Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry 2013