Vision:
To increase the visibility of contemporary Iranian literature on the world stage, create a greater opportunity for Iranian literature to be part of the modern conversation and to receive international recognition such as the Nobel Prize.
Mission:
Founded in 2003, The Translation Project is a nonprofit 501 C 3 organization whose mission is research in and presentation of contemporary Iranian literature to a worldwide audience in multiple languages and media.

A Word to Authors About Translation

What we are:

Literary Organization – Books, Conferences and Festivals
Translators walk a fine line between preserving the innovation of the original text while communicating words and ideas that are fresh and resonant in the target language. The Translation Project works between these two points of negotiation and presents the results via books, conferences and festivals. This being our core activity, we introduce our expanded notion of translation by presenting multimedia art projects based on this literature.

Production Company – Collaborations in Theater, Film and Multimedia
The Translation Project creates and/or produces theater, multimedia presentations, and DVDs of short films, such as Midnight Approaches. As part of our mission to represent Iranians with emblems and icons they can be proud of, we also instigate collaborations between new generations of Iranian artists and established artists with global reputations.

Think Tank – Speculation on the Future of Iranian Arts and Letters
The Translation Project invites authors, artists, scholars, social entrepreneurs and others invested with the responsibility of speculation to address the big questions: What is the global future of Iranian arts and letters in the 21st century? Given the new technologies, how can this literature reach a mass audience? How can we make this work sustainable?

See our Facebook page, posting similar projects

Current projects:

1. BELONGING, New Poetry by Iranians Around the World, forthcoming July 2008 (North Atlantic Books) edited and translated by Niloufar Talebi (translations with Zack Rogow and Daniel O’Connell). It offers a comprehensive yet eclectic view of poetry generated outside Iran since the 1979 revolution by both established and emerging Iranian poets.

For readings, appearances and bookings, contact Allegra Harris at North Atlantic Books.

2. ICARUS/RISE: The SF Examiner calls it “…the festival’s crown jewel…” ICARUS/RISE is a provocative and emotional multimedia theatrical performance of new Iranian poetry, translated, created, directed and performed by Niloufar Talebi, with original score by Bobak Salehi, and choreography and video by Alex Ketley, featuring Chloe Felesina as Icarus. The 10 artists on stage tell a story, woven of poems featured in BELONGING, connecting the myth of Icarus with the migration of Iranians, and the solitary journey of the artist/immigrant in the quest for freedom. ICARUS/RISE begins after the fall and is the journey to self-possession, featuring the emerging voices of Iranian poetry, including Ziba Karbassi, Granaz Moussavi, Maryam Huleh, Abbas Saffari, and Shahrouz Rashid, the poet of “Icarus”.

DVD of ICARUS/RISE forthcoming in 2008! Stay tuned…

ICARUS/RISE is available for touring in the latter part of the ‘07-’08 season, ‘08-’09 season and beyond. Contact us for bookings.

3. Iranian Literary Arts Festival, November 13-17, 2007 in San Francisco. Held at the spacious and industrial space of Theater Artaud, this multimedia festival featured film screenings, panel presentations, keynote talk by distinguished Iranian writer, Moniru Ravanipur, the premier of ICARUS/RISE, a multimedia theatrical piece based on new Iranian poetry, bookstore, book signings, fundraising gala, and more. Stay tuned for details about our 2008 festival!

4. Midnight Approaches… An evocative, entertaining, and educational DVD of short films based on contemporary Iranian poetry, included in BELONGING, it features an Introduction to Persian poetry, 6 films based on poetry, translated, adapted, and brought to life with music, performance and dance. Musical compositions by master musicians such as Hafez Modirzadeh, Ostaad Mohamad Nejad, royal hartigan, David Molina and more.

Buy a Midnight Approaches DVD to support our future projects.

Future projects:

1. New Multimedia theatrical piece, premiering in 2009

2. Our second book of translation

3. An International Institute of Iranian Letters for the preservation and promotion of Iranian literature, which has been subject to censorship inside Iran, as well as to lack of a systematic approach to worldwide translations. Committees will select literary texts of consequence and commission translations into major world languages such as Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, French, and English.