About
Author of four poetry books including upcoming Haji as Puppet: an Orientalist Burlesque, (Word Works. 2017). Winner of 2016 Tenth Gate Prize for Mid-Career Poets, Leslie McGrath, judge and just released Foot Faults: Tennis Poems (David Robert Books, 2016). Also, author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, which won Ohio University Press’s Hollis Summers’ Prize, and Ghazal Games (Ohio UP, 2011).
In addition to teaching creative writing (poetry and literary translation) in the MFA program at Queens College, City University of New York, he teaches and writes on such academic interests as 19th and 20th century American literature as well as Middle Eastern-American literature. Currently, Roger is working toward translating a full-length collection of ghazals by the 14th century Sufi Persian poet, Hafez.
Books
Haji as Puppet
February 2017
Winner of 2016 Tenth Gate Prize for Mid-Career Poets, Leslie McGrath, judge.
Written in a style that is as sure-footed as it is experimental, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic confronts the past and current injustices of the Iranian government while retaining a sense of respect and admiration for the country itself. Woven into this collection are the author’s vivid descriptions of the landscape as well as the people of Iran. Throughout, Sedarat exhibits a keen appreciation for the literary tradition of Iran, and in making it new, attempts to preserve the culture of a country he still claims as his own
Foot Faults
September 2016
Listen to the greatest tennis players in the world hold court in Roger Sedarat’s fine collection, exploring love and faults as they struggle, not always well, to stay within the lines.
“These poems give delightful shape and concision to every thought — stray, deep-felt, nagging — you’ve had as a tennis player. Read them, recognize yourself, and smile.” — Gerald Marzorati, author of Late to the Ball: Age. Learn. Fight. Love. Play Tennis. Win and former editor of New York Times Magazine.
Ghazal Games
December 2012
For its humor as well as its spirituality, the poems in this collection can perhaps best be described as “Wallace Stevens meets Rumi.” Perhaps most striking is the poet’s use of the ancient ghazal form in the tradition of the classical masters like Hafez and Rumi to politically challenge the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continual crackdown on protesters. Not since the late Agha Shahid Ali has a poet translated the letter as well as the spirit of this form into English, using musicality and inventive rhyme to extend the reach of the ghazal in a new language and tradition.
Dear Regime
September 2007
Winner of Ohio University Press’s Hollis Summers’ Prize
Written in a style that is as sure-footed as it is experimental, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic confronts the past and current injustices of the Iranian government while retaining a sense of respect and admiration for the country itself. Woven into this collection are the author’s vivid descriptions of the landscape as well as the people of Iran. Throughout, Sedarat exhibits a keen appreciation for the literary tradition of Iran, and in making it new, attempts to preserve the culture of a country he still claims as his own
Reviews
- Panhandler Interview
- Jillian Steinhauer. Review of short story, “My Lunch with Joe Bisz,” commissioned by Guggenheim Museum. Paris Review.
- Aria Fani, of reading and lecture on Persian ghazal.
- Gene Doty. Review of Ghazal Games. Reflections on Poetry, Books, Film, Other Arts, and Some Autobiographical Bits.
- Shahrokh Ahkami, Review of Ghazal Games in Persian Heritage, Vol. 16: 23, Fall 2011. 24.
- September, 2011. Midwest Book Review (Wisconsin Poetry Watch), Review of Ghazal Games. Vol 6: 9.
- September/October featured book, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, by Shole Wolpe, Poetry Editor, Levantine Cultural Center.
- “Rebellion in Poetry” by Tara Mokhtari.
- These Basijis in Me: Roger Sedarat’s Ghazal Games.” Aria Fani. Frontline: PBS Tehran Bureau.
- Ahkami, Shahrokh. Review of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic. Persian Heritage. 15: 57. Page 22.
- Nasrabadi, Manijeh. Featured Article: “Children of the Revolution: A Second Generation of Iranian American Writers Confronts their Fractured Historical and Cultural Legacy.” Issue 17: Family, Spring 2009. Pages 44-47.
- Held, George. “The Hand of the Poet: Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic by Roger Sedarat, Frail-Craft by Jessica Fisher, and Trying to Help the Elephant Man to Dance.” The Ledge Poetry and Fiction Magazine, Issue 31, Spring 2009. Pages 200-205.
- Cronk, Olivia. “Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic by Roger Sedarat.” Bookslut, 2008.
- Midwest Poetry Review. “The Poetry Shelf: Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic.” Spring 2008.
- Gonzalez, Rigoberto. Interview: “Small Press Spotlight.” Critical Mass: The Blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors. March, 2008.
- Gonzalez, Rigoberto. “Wednesday Shout Out: Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic (Ohio UP).”
- Harriet, Blog of the National Poetry Foundation. Spring 2008.
- McDaniel, Jeffery. “Race/Poetry Symposium.” Harriet, Blog of the National Poetry Foundation. Spring 2007.
Contact
ROGER SEDARAT, PHD
Department of English
Queens College, City University of New York
65-30 Kissena Blvd. ,
Flushing NY, 11367
Roger.Sedarat@qc.cuny.edu
718-997-4713