Sholeh Wolpé

Sholeh Wolpé (born 1962) is an Iranian-born American poet, playwright, librettist, and literary translator. She was born in Iran and grew up there until the age of 13. After that she lived in Trinidad and England during her teenage years before settling in the United States. She lives in Spain and California.

Biography
Sholeh Wolpé was born in 1962 in Tehran, Pahlavi 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 Stages. 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.

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.”

Wolpe's literary translations have garnered several prestigious awards and established her as a celebrated re-creator of Persian poetry.

Literary career
Wolpé began her literary career as a poet. After the publication of her first book, "The Scar Saloon" (Red Hen Press), American poet Galway Kinnell encouraged her to translate Iran's iconic poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Wolpé took his advice and became the first bi-lingual and bi-cultural female poet from Iran to translate Farrokhzad's work into English. Her book, "Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad" (University of Arkansas Press) went on to receive 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation Award from Lois Roth Foundation. The judges wrote that they “found themselves experiencing Forugh’s Persian poems with new eyes.”

Wolpé has continued writing and publishing collections of her own poetry, as well as anthologies and translations. In 2007 Wolpé turned her attention to the stage. Her first play, SHAME (alternately titled The Silver Bangle) went on to become a finalist or semi finalist at multiple important theater festivals and was later published in a World Drama anthology titled "New Iranian Plays"  by Aurora Metro Books in the U.K. She went on to write more plays among them LET ME IN and HOLY CORONA.

In 2005 Wolpé turned her attention to Iranian poetic masterpiece The Conference of the Birds by the 12th Century Iranian Sufi mystic poet "Attar". Her preliminary work was lauded by PEN America as an “artful and exquisite modern translation ”and was awarded the PEN Heim Translation Fund Grant. Soon after the book was acquired by W.W. Norton & Co and published in 2007.

Wolpé's sole translation from English to Persian is Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself" (آواز خويشتن) which was commissioned by the University of Iowa International Program. She co-translated it with Iranian poet Mohsen Emadi and is currently on the University of Iowa’s Whitman website.

In 2017 Oakland Theater Project (then known as Ubuntu Theater) commissioned Wolpé to adapt "The Conference of the Birds" for the stage. The play was produced in 2017 by the Inferno Theater in Berkeley, California, in 2018 by Ubuntu Theater. In 2022 it was staged by the Northern Illinois University School of Theater and Dance.

In 2019 Wolpé began a collaboration with composer Fahad Siadat and choreographer Andre Megerdichian. Their work culminated in "The Conference of the Birds- A Movement-Driven Oratorio". The work garnered support form the National Endowment for the Arts, Farhang Foundation, and Scripps College, among others and went on stage in Pasadena at The Noise Within and in Los Angeles at The Broad Stage.

Wolpé continued her work with composers such as Aida Shirazi (Language of Loss)  and Saunder Choi (Song of Exile), as well as providing lyrics for Jazz: Effervescence for Grammy nominated San Gabriel 7’s third jazz album, Lost My Heart, featuring Australian vocalist Ingrid James.

Sholeh Wolpé is also a performer. Her multi-media performance "Seven Valleys" commissioned by The Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles was presented to audiences in 2022.

Wolpé's Memoir, "Abacus of Loss - A Memoir in Verse" (University of Arkansas Press) is her 2022 book in which she combines several genres (memoir, poetry, and reportage) to shape and deliver her story. It was lauded by The Mary Sue journal as "One of 8 Beautiful, Contemporary Novels Written in Verse That Make Poetry Accessible."

Playwright and Lyricist
2023 — Brooklyn Art Song Society, Abacus of Loss – Art Song, composed by Aida Shirazi, text by Sholeh Wolpé. – Premiere: Brooklyn, Newyork

2023 —Resonance Collective, The Conference of the Birds album

2023 — Arlington Choir Song of Exile, libretto: Sholeh Wolpé   Composer: Saunder Choi, Premiered in Arlington Va

2023 —   And Here I am, A lonely Woman. Composer: Huba de Graaf, Netherlands

2022 —The Getty Villa Museum — THE SEVEN VALLEYS, an original commissioned musical drama utilizing text from Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. By Sholeh Wolpé (event photos)

2022 —The Broad Stage, Santa Monica — World premiere of THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, A MOVEMENT-DRIVEN ORATORIO composed by Fahad Siadat, Libretto Sholeh Wolpé

2022 —Northern Illinois University, School of Theater and Dance —THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2022 —Scripps College, School of music — Soft premiere of THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, an ORATORIO composed by Fahad Siadat, Libretto Sholeh Wolpé

2021 —Town Street Theater, Los Angeles— BROTHERS AT THE CANADIAN BORDER

2021 —Long Intermediate School, Bryan, TX — LET ME IN

2020 —The Alternative Theater Company, “Believeability” Festival — HOLY CORONA

2018 —Inferno Theater, Berkeley, Ca — THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2018 —Oakland Theater Project, Oakland, Ca — THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS

2017 —Centenary Stage Women Playwrights Series — staged reading SHAME

2015 —New Ohio Theater, New York City — staged reading SHAME

2013 —The Marilyn Monroe Theater, West Hollywood — staged reading SHAME

2007 —Open Fist Theater, Los Angeles — Staged reading SHAME

Anthologies

 * Atlanta Review, volume XVI — Iran Issue 2010 guest edited by Sholeh Wolpe
 * Atlanta Review, volume XVI — Iran Issue 2010 guest edited by Sholeh Wolpe