Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: Farnaz Fatemi
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
May 2026 Poet: Farnaz Fatemi
Passage
In translation, I am a succulent flower punctuating arid days. I am a girl without words listening for a familiar rattle in the seed pods. I am the book my cousins can't hold in their hands. Only in translation, beyond the names of oceans or latitudes of rice, I belong. I am in this new place but haven't noticed yet. Here I spoon my envy in my cereal, can't say who it is I'd rather be. I know the Alborz mountains but pronounce them without the accent of absence, the way all my aunts do. My permits are in order. I come and go, carrying only their stories as baggage. I know nothing of exile. I blink and pass through walls not meant for me.
Source
Sister Tongue زبان خواهر, Kent State University Press, 2022
Poet Bio
Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet from Santa Cruz, CA, is the author of Sister Tongue زبان خواهر (Kent State University Press), selected by Tracy K. Smith, which won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. Farnaz is a former Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate and founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, which presents a weekly radio show and podcast in Santa Cruz County and hosts readings and poetry-related events. She is also an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow. Farnaz’s poems and essays appear in Kenyon Review, RHINO Poetry, Alaska Quarterly Review, No Tokens Journal, Poets.org, Tupelo Quarterly, Terrain.org and elsewhere.