Majid Naficy was born in Isfahan, Iran in 1952. His first collection of poems in Persian, In the Tiger’s Skin, was published in 1969. One year later his book of literary criticism, Poetry as a Structure, appeared. In 1971 he wrote a children’s book, The Secret of Words, which won a national award in Iran. In the 70s, Majid was politically active against the Shah’s regime. After the 1979 Revolution, the new regime began to suppress the opposition, and many people, including his first wife Ezzat Tabaian and brother Sa’id, were executed. Majid fled Iran in 1983 and spent a year and a half in Turkey and France, then settled in Los Angeles where he lives with his son, Azad. He has since published eight collections of poems: After the Silence, Sorrow of the Border, Poems of Venice, Muddy Shoes, Twelve Poems in Love: A Narrative, I Write to Bring You Back, Father & Son and Galloping Gazelles, as well as four books of essays: In Search of Joy: A Critique of Death-Oriented, Male-Dominated Culture in Iran, Poetry & Politics and Twenty-Four Other Essays, The Best of Nima and I Am Iran Alone. He holds a doctorate degree in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles. His doctoral dissertation, “Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij,” was published by University Press of America, Inc. in 1997. Majid Naficy is a co-editor of Daftarhaya Kanoon, a Persian periodical published by Iranian Writers’ Association in Exile.

Here are links to a few places where you can read his poems online:

• Iranian.com has a broad selection of his poems in both English and Persian, including his recent contributions, “The Empty Place of Eddie” (in English and Spanish) and “My Neighbor Goes To the Zoo.”
• “Night” and “Narcissus Flower” are posted in both Persian and English at The Translation Project Web site.
• A video version of “Night” is posted at Moving Poems.
• “My Poem Has the Scent of Nadia” (in memory of Nadia Anjuman) was published in the Winter 2006 edition of the Poets Against War newsletter.
• Louise Steinman wrote a long biographical profile of Naficy for LA Weekly in 2001, “Poet of the Revolution.” His poem “Ah, Los Angeles” appears at the end of the article.

To purchase his books in English, use these shopping links:

• Muddy Shoes (poems, Beyond Baroque Books, 1999)
  
• Father & Son (poems, Red Hen Press, 2003)
  
• Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij (dissertation, University Press of America, 1997)
  

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