Projects

Multimedia & Performances

Selected Publications

Selections from Elegies of the Earth, Asymptote, July 2025
“Home Proxy Home,” The Evergreen Review, March 21, 2023
On Iran’s Master Poet of Freedom, Los Angeles Review of Books, Dec. 12, 2022
Genesis, on Shamlou’s 22nd anniversary, Caesura Magazine, July 23, 2022
Colossal, on Shamlou’s 96th birthday, Parsagon, Dec. 12, 2021
In Memoriam: Abbas Saffari (1951-2021)
To Be or Not to Be, That is Not the Question, Markaz Review, Dec. 12, 2020
100 Essential Books by Iranian Writers, The Margins, Sept. 2020
Bus Drivers and Fire Walkers, Michigan Quarterly Review, Sept. 2020
Top 7x7s of Niloufar Talebi, Parsagon Review, August 2020
The Birth of a Translator (excerpt), Aster(ix) Journal, February 2020
In Conversation on Shamlou’s birthday, Critical Flame, Dec. 2019
Self-Portrait in Bloom (excerpt), Consequence Magazine, Nov. 2019
The Book of Tehran (Comma Press, 2019)
HERE: Poems for the Planet (Copper Canyon Press, 2019)
So You Want to Make an Opera, San Francisco Classical Voice (2018)
“Collective Love” by Ahmad Shamlou, Catamaran Literary Reader (2014)
Pusteblume Journal, Boston University (2014)
Evesdropping on a Chat InDance Magazine (2013)
Strange Times, My Dear: The Pen Anthology (Arcade Publishing, 2005)
The Art and Politics of Translation PBS Frontline/Tehran Bureau (2009)
Memory of a Phoenix Feather World Literature Today (2009)
Moving Poems: The Best Poetry Videos on the Web, (April 2009)
Against Longing: Translation ArteEast (2007)
An Interview with Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Writers Chronicle (May/Summer 2007)
Fundaçio Tapiés Museum Catalogue - Bahman Jalali retrospective (2007)
Guest editor and featured translator, Rattapallax 13 (2006)
Winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize, Evansville Review (2006)
2 Poems by A. H. Afrasiabi in Translation, Agni online (2006)
Harvard Divinity Bulletin (2006)
Zoland Poetry Anthology (2006)
Bidoun: Art and Culture of the Middle East (2006)
Two Lines 12: Bodies (2005)
Circumference Magazine (2005)
Hogtown Creek Review (2005)
Poetry International (2005)
Mother Jones Magazine (1995)

Reviews

“[Abraham in Flames]...elusive but arresting new chamber opera by librettist and creator Niloufar Talebi and composer Aleksandra Vrebalov.”

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
“The oldest art form, storytelling, is on dazzling display in Niloufar Talebi’s electrifying and multidisciplinary wisdom. Niloufar masterfully captures the essence of ancient rituals and myths while infusing them with a thoroughly modern sensibility. The result, The Persian Rite of Spring, is a theatrical performance for all ages that will awaken even the most slumbering soul into a new beginning!”

Maryna Hrushetska, Art Consultant
'The future changes the past. The name 'Rite of Spring' may bring to mind the 1913 production of Igor Stravinsky’s work, which threw a lightning bolt into the heart of classical culture. Now there is a new work in dialogue with Stravinsky: Niloufar Talebi’s The Persian Rite of Spring: the Story of Nowruz furthers the ongoing conversation by offering a new modernism, rooted in ancient Persian humanism, with a vitality and power deeply needed in these uncertain times. Talebi turns Stravinsky’s sacrifice on its head. Unlike the “Chosen One” in the ballet, she embodies the ancient rite of spring with no need to destroy herself for the patriarchy."

Gary Gach, Author
“Librettist Niloufar Talebi, the theatrical visionary behind The Persian Rite of Spring, saw the focus of their [9/11] piece Fire Angels as a romance, rather than a John Adams-esque CNN song cycle...rather than retell the events themselves, [they] delve into their emotional cores...”

Operavore

Projects

Multimedia & Performances

Selected Publications

“[Abraham in Flames]...elusive but arresting new chamber opera by librettist and creator Niloufar Talebi and composer Aleksandra Vrebalov.”

“Librettist Niloufar Talebi, the theatrical visionary behind The Persian Rite of Spring, saw the focus of their [9/11] piece Fire Angels as a romance, rather than a John Adams-esque CNN song cycle...rather than retell the events themselves, [they] delve into their emotional cores...”