Moi…
I’m not saying moi because I’m one of “those” people, but because I’m writing this, while at residency in Switzerland, near Geneva. In fact, I’m looking out my window at the Swiss Alps and Lake Geneva right now. It’s a cloudy day, but the clouds are just above the peak of the mountains. A Swiss translator who is also at this residency pointed out Mont Blanc to me. I thought of the pen, before I thought of the mountain.
As you can see from these words here, I am a writer. But unlike many writers, I am extroverted, so I also make films and perform. I have written a memoir, which didn’t sell (the feedback from many editors can be summed down to three statements: 1. Is this book about love or immigration (I don’t know how to market it) ? 2. This book is not Iranian enough/this book is too Iranian 3. We’ve seen enough of the Iranian female memoir.
My second book, a collection of short stories, actually sold. It sold within 24 hours of going out, to an indie publisher I was very excited about. But then, a few months before its release date, the publisher/editor put a white female musicians blurb on my book jacket without letting me know and got angry when I protested, saying I wanted Iranian writer’s blurb on my book jacket (a collection of stories about Iranian immigrants) and dropped my book. She also mentioned my ambition as an issue.
Alas, it seems I am stuck in some kind of Sisyphus scenario.
That said, plenty of my essays and stories have been published (A Public Space, Harper’s Bazaar, Longreads, Catapult, Guernica, Food & Wine, etc.), so you can read my work or watch my films online.
This Newsletter?
I write letters to you, not too often, but just often enough. If you like receiving letters about life and all it encompasses—the big and the small and the gritty and the smile so big your cheeks hurt stuff—you might enjoy this.
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