Abbas Saffari was born in 1951 in Yazd, Iran, and has lived in the U.S. since 1979. Read More While still in high school in Iran, he wrote lyrics for several popular singers, including Farhad's classic song "Captured by Night." He is the author of Confluence of Hands and Apples (Los Angeles: Kaaroon, 1992); Twilight of Presence (Los Angeles: Tasveer, 1995); Old Camera and Other Poems (Tehran: Saales, 2002); Moon and the Solitude of Lovers [translation of Izumi Shikibu and Lady Komachi] (Tehran: Ahang E. Digar, 2004); and Egyptian Love Poems [translation of Ezra Pound and Noel Stock] (Tehran: Morvarid, 2004). He was cofounder and poetry editor of two Iranian literary magazines in exile: Sang (1997-2000) and Cactus (2000-2002). He studied sculpture at California State University, Long Beach, and currently lives in Long Beach with his wife and two daughters. His first collection of poems won the Baran Book Prize in Sweden in 1993. Last year he became the first poet in diaspora to win the Karnameh Poetry Prize in Iran.