Poet Biography

Ziba Karbassi

ZIBA KARBASSI was born in Tabriz, northwestern Iran. She had to leave her country with her mother in the mid-1980s and for most of the time since then she has lived in London. She has published seven books of poetry in Persian and is widely regarded as the most accomplished Persian poet of her generation. Her dense and open-meshed lyrical poetry achieves an intensity and balance that is rare in contemporary poetry. She has read widely across Europe and America. She was chairperson of the Iranian Writers Association (in exile) from 2002 to 2004 and editor of Asar and Exiled Ink literature magazines in London. Her poems have appeared in many languages throughout Europe and the UK. Translations by Stephen Watts have appeared in such journals as Poetry Review and Modern Poetry Translation.