Stanford's Beta Prize for Literature and Freedom
Iranian poet, Simin Behbahani is the first recepient of the Beta award from Stanford University. Of Behbahani, Cynthia Haven of the Stanford News Service, writes: "Behbahani is one of the most prominent figures of modern Persian literature and one of the most outstanding among contemporary Persian poets, as well as a leading dissident. She is Iran's national poet and an icon of the Iranian intelligentsia and literati, who affectionately refer to her as the "lioness of Iran." Her poems are quoted like aphorisms and proverbs."
Behbahani was also nominated for the Noble prize in literature in 1997. The award ceremony is set for March 11th.
Mehdi Okasi
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Reader Comments (1)
Her lines "To stay alive, you must slay silence … / to pay homage to being, you must sing" remind me of Amiri Baraka's dialog as the griot in Bulworth; I believe he says something like, "You can't be no ghost, Bulworth. You've got to be a spirit. And a spirit will not rise without song."