Writes of Spring: A Now Roz Reading featuring Sahar Muradi, Haleh Liza, Madhu Kaza and Zohra Saed, Hosted by UpSet Press (www.upsetpress.org)

Sahar Muradi is author of the chapbook [ G A T E S ] from Black Lawrence Press / is co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature / is co-founder of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association / has been the recipient of the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award, a Kundiman Poetry Fellowship, and an Asian American Writers’ Workshop Open City Fellowship / has an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, an MPA in international development from NYU, and a BA in creative writing from Hampshire College / directs the poetry programs at City Lore / and dearly believes in the bottom of the rice pot.saharmuradi.com

Haleh Liza: I am a musician and poet living in Brooklyn, descended from Iran. If I have two wings right now, one is Persian mysticism, and the other a kind of animativ-ism I experienced in the Amazon. The reverence for life and acceptance of death that pervade the poems and songs in these traditions have been a balm for my soul. I feel they are partial antidotes to the consumerism and militarism we are all soaked in. Haleh Liza lives and works in Brooklyn. Her poems have been published by Columbia University Press, Beyond Borders, and Rattapallax. She has performed at various venues including Lincoln Center Out of Doors, WorldFest, Carnegie Hall and the University of NC at Chapel Hill, as Haale and The Mast. Haleh is currently translating ghazals by the Persian mystical poet Rumi, from his book Divan-i-Shams. She lives in Brooklyn, where she writes, performs, teaches and facilitates circles where all gather to discuss and sing select poems and songs. Haleh received her MFA in Poetry from CCNY, and her BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. 

Madhu Kaza: Born in Andhra Pradesh, India, Madhu H. Kaza is a writer, translator, artist and educator based in New York City. She is the co-editor of the recent anthology, What We Love, and the editor of Kitchen Table Translation, a volume that explores the connection between translation and migration and which features immigrant, diasporic and poc translators. She directs the Bard Microcollege at Brooklyn Public Library and teaches in the MFA program at Columbia University.

Zohra Saed is the co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press) and editor of the chapbook: Langston Hughes: Poems, Photos and Notebook from Turkestan (Lost & Found, The CUNY Poetics Documents Initiative). Woman. Hand/Pen (Belladonna Series chaplet #217). She co-founded UpSet Press, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit indie press, with poet Robert Booras. Zohra is Assistant Professor in Literature at Bard Early College, Queens.

Cover Art: Nasser Ovissi