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This is a coming of age memoir and the literary biography of the poet Ahmad Shamlou, and the intersection of two lives.
IN THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR II, “a new dynamism” was taking shape in Persian poetry. Award-winning translator Niloufar Talebi explains how Iranian poets were increasingly instrumental in “freeing Persian poetry from the state of decline and stagnation.” Into this backdrop emerges the poet Ahmad Shamlou in this part-memoir, part-biography, and part-history of literature in Iran. “There are two books in this book, one portrait of me and one of Ahmad Shamlou. And they intersect,” Talebi writes of Self-Portrait in Bloom. Released in the 40th anniversary year of the Iranian revolution, it delves deep into culture, personal history, and pays homage to Tehran, the city of Talebi’s childhood. Told in fragments of prose, poetry, and photographs, this lyrical exploration reimagines the memoir form and in a dramatic climax sets free the details of a hurt that can no longer limit the blossoming of an artist.
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“A hybrid wonder” (The Rumpus)
"Brilliant writers can have brilliant debuts. Elegiac and deep diving into the mind of a genius existentialist, Niloufar Talebi's memoir, Self-Portrait in Bloom, is reminiscent of Sebald. This original work feels true to continuous life and disjointed memory — separate yet forced to be connected. This is a compelling book by a true writer.
— Amy Tan, author of Where the Past A Writer's Memoir “
“Self-Portrait in Bloom recounts the stories of poets, revolutions, women, and censorship. A celebration of the recreative power of memory and language, from the girl standing in front of her blue bedroom window watching snow, to the many lessons of silence—Talebi’s “animal with two faces.” It is a book of longing, haunted by history.”
— Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa
This is a coming of age memoir and the literary biography of the poet Ahmad Shamlou, and the intersection of two lives.
IN THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR II, “a new dynamism” was taking shape in Persian poetry. Award-winning translator Niloufar Talebi explains how Iranian poets were increasingly instrumental in “freeing Persian poetry from the state of decline and stagnation.” Into this backdrop emerges the poet Ahmad Shamlou in this part-memoir, part-biography, and part-history of literature in Iran. “There are two books in this book, one portrait of me and one of Ahmad Shamlou. And they intersect,” Talebi writes of Self-Portrait in Bloom. Released in the 40th anniversary year of the Iranian revolution, it delves deep into culture, personal history, and pays homage to Tehran, the city of Talebi’s childhood. Told in fragments of prose, poetry, and photographs, this lyrical exploration reimagines the memoir form and in a dramatic climax sets free the details of a hurt that can no longer limit the blossoming of an artist.
***
“A hybrid wonder” (The Rumpus)
"Brilliant writers can have brilliant debuts. Elegiac and deep diving into the mind of a genius existentialist, Niloufar Talebi's memoir, Self-Portrait in Bloom, is reminiscent of Sebald. This original work feels true to continuous life and disjointed memory — separate yet forced to be connected. This is a compelling book by a true writer.
— Amy Tan, author of Where the Past A Writer's Memoir “
“Self-Portrait in Bloom recounts the stories of poets, revolutions, women, and censorship. A celebration of the recreative power of memory and language, from the girl standing in front of her blue bedroom window watching snow, to the many lessons of silence—Talebi’s “animal with two faces.” It is a book of longing, haunted by history.”
— Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa