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Contributor

Sara Khalili

Photo of translator Sara Khalili
Photo credit: Miriam Berkley
Contributor

Sara Khalili

Translator Sara Khalili is an editor and award-winning translator of contemporary Iranian literature, including Shahriar Mandanipour’s novels Moon Brow and Censoring an Iranian Love Story. She is the recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award for Mandanipour’s short story collection Seasons of Purgatory, which has also been longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. She lives in New York.

Articles by Sara Khalili

A dirty black chair illuminated in a dark cell
Photo by Spencer Tamichi on Unsplash
A Slice of Darkness
By Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar
“Why do you think they brought you here?”
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
The Poet, His Cut-Off Head in His Hand, Went Singing Songs and Ghazals: Literature in Iran
By Shahriar Mandanipour
Iran’s literature has survived, and its survival has a secret.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Like a Body Turned Inside Out
By Yaghoub Yadali
Borzu Alvandi will always wonder why he wasn’t martyred.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
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Green Sour Orange
By Neda Kavoosifar
With his eyes bulging, Mr. Moadab murmurs, It’s like silk . . .
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
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Rahman’s Story
By Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar
I lost two people, I’ll take two people . . . with this very bayonet.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
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Forty-Eight Steps
By Paxima Mojavezi
He sets off, a few steps ahead of me. I follow him.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Multilingual
The Pink Cloud
By Alireza Mahmoudi Iranmehr
I was looking at the sky when suddenly a shower of bullets pierced my chest.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Multilingual
from “I Will Grow, I Will Bear Fruit . . . Figs”
By Payam Feili
I leave and return with a large piece of sky.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Bastard
By Yasser Norouzi
You want me to grant your wish, you must satisfy my need.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Multilingual
Someone is Calling “Leili”
By Noori Ijadi
By the way, how old am I? I can’t remember.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Multilingual
Escape
By Behnaz Alipour Gaskari
She was now sitting half-naked in front of the door.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
Multilingual
Mummy and Honey
By Shahriar Mandanipour
She had seen a rope in the middle of her room and when she bent down to pick it up, the rope had with insolent reluctance slithered into the folds of the bedding.
Translated from Persian by Sara Khalili
The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons
By Goli Taraghi
The old lady taps me on the shoulder. Dear Lady, I'd give my life for you. I'm late. I'm afraid I'll be left behind.
Translated from Persian by Karim Emami & Sara Khalili