Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and composer born in New York City of Persian descent. Her book of translations, Gold: Poems by Rumi, was published by New York Review Books in 2022. Supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, Gafori has created a cross-media performance piece based on the book, weaving translations, original text, and musical compositions sung in Persian and English.
Gafori’s work has been published by Columbia University Press, Harvard Review (forthcoming), Literary Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and elsewhere. She has presented lectures, workshops, and performance pieces at universities and festivals across the country and abroad, including Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library, and Bradford Literary Fest.
At MacDowell, Gafori completed her second volume of translations of Rumi's poetry. This book will be released in 2025 by New York Review Books and is a follow up to her first volume, Gold. She continued developing her performance piece, which weaves translations, songs, and stories. She presented this new work at Le Poisson Rouge in April of 2024, and throughout the year at various venues.
