Standing on Earth

In his poems of memory and displacement, Iranian poet Mohsen Emadi charts his experience of exile with vivid, often haunting, imagery and a child's love of language. Lyn Coffin's translations from the Persian allow Emadi's poems to inhabit the English language as their own, as the poet recasts his earliest memories and deepest loves over the forges of being "someone who goes to bed in one city and wakes up in another city." Alternating between acceptance and despair, tenderness and toughness, he writes, "I wanted to be a physicist," but "Your kisses made me a poet." Mohsen Emadi is a powerful witness to life in the present times, and Standing on Earth introduces a major world poet to an English-language readership for the first time.

Born in Iran, Mohsen Emadi is the award-winning author of four collections of poetry published in Iran and Spain, He has also translate numerous collections of poetry. Emadi studied Computer Engineering in Sharif University of Technology in Iran and Digital Culture at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He is the founder and manager of Ahmad Shamlou’s official website, and The House of World Poets, a Persian anthology of world poetry featuring more than 500 poets from around the world. He was awarded the Premio de Poesía de Miedo in 2010 and IV Beca de Antonio Machado in 2011. Emadi has lived in Iran, Finland, the Czech Republic, Spain, and is now based in Mexico City.

Lyn Coffin is a widely published poet, translator, playwright, and fiction writer. Her translation of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther Skin appeared in 2015. She has published nineteen books. She teaches professional and continuing education at the University of Washington and lives in Seattle.