Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora

Persis Karim (editor), Al Young (foreword).

University of Arkansas Press in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation.

This is a powerful literary collection that speaks to history, immigration, and the emergence of new identities.Until recently, Iranian literature has overwhelmingly been the domain of men. But in the twenty seven years since the Iranian revolution, women both in Iran and in the diaspora have written and published in unprecedented numbers. The new hybrid cultures of Iranian diaspora writers has given way to a uniquely feminine literary voice. Let Me Tell You Where I've Been, the first anthology of writing by women of the Iranian diaspora, is an extensive collection of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction that explores through literature the influences of history, revolution, war, exile, and immigration. The work in this collection uncovers an emerging multicultural generation of female sensibility and eloquence. Unlike the tired, familiar images of Iran in the media, these women write about the complicated spaces between cultures, and capture a unique and still emerging literature.They challenge both the patriarchal literary tradition of Iran and the singular portrayals in the West of Iranian women as veiled, silent, and lacking in agency. Featuring over one hundred selections (two-thirds of which have never been published before) from over fifty contributors - including such well-known writers as Susan Atefat-Peckham, Tara Bahrampour, Firoozeh Dumas, Azadeh Moaveni, and Farnoosh Moshiri - the collection represents a substantial cross section of this unique multicultural community. Organized around six general themes, including home and away, family and tradition, gender, politics, love, and silence, Let Me Tell You Where I've Been creates a rich conversation about Iran, Iranian culture, the Persian and English languages, and the dual identities of its authors. In a time when Iran is cited daily in the news and political rhetoric is at an all time high, this collection offers a complex and humanizing literary expression. These writers bring their individual and collective vision and offer a powerful new voice to the international literary scene.

We have to thank Persis Karim for this wonderful book and for these powerful selections; they offer an alternative to the currently politicized and one-sided view of Iran and Iranian culture.
Azar Nafisi, Johns Hopkins University, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

Iran is a land of paradoxes. It is also undergoing a momentous and profound transformation. The delightfully diverse group of women assembled in this important and timely anthology offers a panoramic view of these complex and dynamic changes. Persis Karim ought to be congratulated.
Farzaneh Milani, University of Virginia, author of Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers

Persis Karim is an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University in California and co-editor of A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans. She is currently working on a collection of essays, In the Belly of the Great Satan: Literature, Art and the Emergence of Iranian-American Identity.

Al Young is the poet laureate of California. Young has a long list of publications ranging from novels and poetry collections to musical memoirs and screenplays. Currently, he is working on a new novel called A Piece of Cake, a sequel to his Sitting Pretty.

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