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Contributor

Sara Khalili

Photo of translator Sara Khalili

Photo credit: Miriam Berkley

Contributor

Sara Khalili

United States

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

LearnMultilingual

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”

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 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