Sholeh Wolpé is an Iranian-born poet, writer, librettist, and translator whose work bridges literature, performance, and spiritual inquiry across cultures. Writing in English and translating from Persian, she is widely recognized for her re-creations of Persian poetry, particularly the works of the 12th-century mystic Attar and the Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Her books include The Invisible Sun: Selected Poems of Attar, longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize; The Conference of the Birds; and Abacus of Loss: A Memoir in Verse. Spanning poetry, theater, opera, and multidisciplinary performance, her work explores transformation, exile, love, power, and the interior forces that shape both private and political life.
Wolpé’s librettos, plays, and performance works have been commissioned and presented internationally, including The Seven Valleys, commissioned by the Getty Villa Museum, and The Conference of the Birds—A Movement-Driven A Cappella Oratorio. She is the recipient of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, the Lois Roth Translation Prize, and Opera America’s Discovery Grant, and serves as Writer-in-Residence at the University of California, Irvine. She divides her time between California and Barcelona.
Photo credit: Mona Ramsdel 2026
“In a world where cultures and religions are recklessly facing off, Sholeh Wolpé writes careful poems that cast a light on some of what we all hold in common.” –Billy Collins, Poet Laureate United States
“Sholeh Wolpé, a poet and artist in her own right, Iranian-born and cosmopolitan, is a daughter of the freedom made possible by poets like Farrokhzad. Her translations are hypnotic in their beauty and force.” – Alicia Ostriker, poet, critic, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets
“Sholeh Wolpé’s poems are political, satirical, and unflinching in the face of war, tyranny and loss. Talismanic and alchemical, they attempt to transmute experience into the magic of the imagined. But they also dare to be tender and funny lyrical moments.” –Chris Abani, poet and novelist
“So much to love here in this brave and vivid music of storytelling. I for one admire how much Sholeh Wolpé loves our days, how much tenderness and insight, each moment’s turn offers. There is much gusto, too, and such style and verve. ‘Make my curly hair your flag,’ the poet tells us, as she guides us on the trip via ‘boats crusted with stories.’” –Ilya Kaminsky, National Book Award Finalist
“Through her translations of Iranian writers, and through four collections of her own poetry, Wolpé seeks to bridge the fierce political divide between her native Iran and her adopted Western homes—to pierce their mutual ignorance, and reveal one to the other.” –Guernica, A Magazine of Global Arts and Politics
“Sholeh Wolpé provides generous service in showing readers the different ways that poets commit to their own voices as they call out The Deadly Silencer, sounding off in a world that does not listen, indifferent to their commitment.” –Huffington Post
“In this beautiful rendering of Attar’s Conference of the Birds, Sholeh Wolpé, herself a passionate poet, transports us to another time, another language & another world, while reminding us of how enduring & universal great works of imagination are, how they create spaces within which we not only acknowledge and appreciate our differences but also recognize & celebrate our shared humanity. Only a true poet could achieve such a feat.” –Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
“Wolpe’s poems are at once humorous, sad and sexy, which is to say that they are capriciously human, human even in that they dream of wings and are always threatening to take flight.” –Tony Barnstone, poet
“Sholeh Wolpé’s poetry proves to be rumination, prayer, song.” –Nathalie Handal, poet and essayist
“Sholeh Wolpé’s poems confirm the positive reaction that I have had to her work–the irrepressible originality, the insouciant wit, the occasional stabs of pain, the fearless honesty, the instant evocation of a time and a place are all here in an enjoyable and endearing mix.” –Amin Banani, Professor Emeritus of Persian and History, UCLA
“Wolpe's righteous aversion to male oppression is as broad as the span from Tehran to LA, as deep as a wise woman’s heart.” – Richard Katrovas, Poet, novelist, Western Michigan University
“I read an advanced copy of Sholeh Wolpé ’s translation of the twelfth-century Persian masterpiece The Conference of Birds. It is a beautiful work and a beautiful translation. One of Sholeh Wolpé ’s strengths as a translator is that she is also a poet with a fine ear for English and she brings her feeling for language into her translations.” –Peter Constantine, in an interview in The Center For Fiction
“Sholeh Wolpé’s exquisite poetic voice and her superb command of the art of translation meld together in translations that exude passion, defiance, and crackling wit.” –Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California, Irvine