Roger Sedarat, an Iranian American poet, scholar, and translator, as well as author of four poetry collections and the first full-length study of Persian influence on the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson. His books of translation include a forthcoming selection of translated ghazals by the 14th century poet Hafez. A recipient of a Willis Barnstone Prize in Translation, his renderings of classical and modern Persian verse have appeared in such journals as Poetry, Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Brooklyn Rail.
In addition to publishing, he brings much of his creative writing along with translation into interdisciplinary performance. Haji as Puppet: an Orientalist Burlesque, his most recent poetry collection that challenges the Orientalist gaze of the Middle East, received a grant to be turned into a staged production.
At MacDowell, Sedarat continued to work on the translations of a contemporary postmodern Persian poet who writes under a pseudonym to protect himself from political persecution.
