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A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans
This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans. This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans. Wide ranging and deeply personal, these pieces explore the Iranian community's continuing struggle to understand what it means to be Iranian in America. The selections come together to present a rich, humanizing portrait of a growing community Americans tend to view negatively. Many are intimate reflections on the pain of being alienated from the language, history, and geography of one's childhood. Others grapple with the complexities of cultural and personal identity. Iranian Americans, like any other immigrant community, must face the ongoing negotiation between past and present, their native home and their adopted home. A World Between gives voice to their unique and moving stories.
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 6, 2024
AN EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF POETRY AND PROSE BY IRANIAN-AMERICANS
Dr. Persis Karim is director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, and a professor of Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University. She wrote in the Preface of this 1999 collection, “This book is for those young people who, like me, have searched for ways to express and understand the complexities of what it means to live in the aftermath of their parents’ migrations.”
She and co-editor Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami (who teaches Persian language and literature at New York University) wrote in the Introduction, “The dramatic social upheaval following the Iranian Revolution produced one of the largest mass migrations in recent history… more than 3 million Iranians emigrated to Europe and North America… more than 1 million came to the United States. Many sought relief from political and religious persecution. Others sought to escape the effects of the Iran-Iraq war… and the difficult economic conditions that accompanied the eight-year conflict… many of these exiles, refugees, and immigrants have become permanent residents and citizens of the United States. Iranian-American communities have burgeoned in California (Los Angeles, which has the largest population of Iranians, is often called ‘Tehrangeles’), New York, Texas, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington D.C. …
“Some of the stories and poems emerge from the experiences of Iranians who consider themselves exiles and whose families would have been at risk had they remained in Iran after the revolution… This collection also bridges that first generation of Iranian immigrants who were born and raised in Iran and who recall the period prior to the revolution, as well as those younger Iranian-Americans who were born in the United States and consider themselves to be both Iranian and American.. Our deliberate use of the hyphen in ‘Iranian-American’ is meant to represent this synthesis of two distinct cultures. We also use it to suggest the state of in-betweenness many Iranian-Americans find themselves in, as well as the process by which Iranians living in America have begun to claim their ethnicity as Americans.
“Much of the writing by first-generation Iranian-Americans draws on childhood memories of Iran and on the images, colors, and textures, that resonate with Iranians wherever they are… The second generation… has a more tenuous connection with Iran, having grown up in the shadow of the hostage crisis and the political tensions between the United States and Iran… some of the authors… retain strong links to Iranian culture through their parents and grandparents, who continue to struggle with the English language and cultural assimilation… The works in this collection also show how Iranian culture pervades the food, language, and gestures of everyday life of Iranian-Americans… Several authors have recently traveled to Iran, either for the first time or after a long separation, only to discover that they can no more be completely Iranian than they can be completely American. Distance from Iran has often created an idealized image of the homeland. Many of these works bear traces of such an idealization of Persian traditions, customs, cuisine, landscape, and family relationships…”
Persis M. Karim also edited another anthology, “Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing By Women of the Iranian Diaspora.”
This collection will be of keen interest to those wanting to know more about what Iranians living in this country are thinking and feeling.
Dr. Persis Karim is director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, and a professor of Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University. She wrote in the Preface of this 1999 collection, “This book is for those young people who, like me, have searched for ways to express and understand the complexities of what it means to live in the aftermath of their parents’ migrations.”
She and co-editor Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami (who teaches Persian language and literature at New York University) wrote in the Introduction, “The dramatic social upheaval following the Iranian Revolution produced one of the largest mass migrations in recent history… more than 3 million Iranians emigrated to Europe and North America… more than 1 million came to the United States. Many sought relief from political and religious persecution. Others sought to escape the effects of the Iran-Iraq war… and the difficult economic conditions that accompanied the eight-year conflict… many of these exiles, refugees, and immigrants have become permanent residents and citizens of the United States. Iranian-American communities have burgeoned in California (Los Angeles, which has the largest population of Iranians, is often called ‘Tehrangeles’), New York, Texas, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington D.C. …
“Some of the stories and poems emerge from the experiences of Iranians who consider themselves exiles and whose families would have been at risk had they remained in Iran after the revolution… This collection also bridges that first generation of Iranian immigrants who were born and raised in Iran and who recall the period prior to the revolution, as well as those younger Iranian-Americans who were born in the United States and consider themselves to be both Iranian and American.. Our deliberate use of the hyphen in ‘Iranian-American’ is meant to represent this synthesis of two distinct cultures. We also use it to suggest the state of in-betweenness many Iranian-Americans find themselves in, as well as the process by which Iranians living in America have begun to claim their ethnicity as Americans.
“Much of the writing by first-generation Iranian-Americans draws on childhood memories of Iran and on the images, colors, and textures, that resonate with Iranians wherever they are… The second generation… has a more tenuous connection with Iran, having grown up in the shadow of the hostage crisis and the political tensions between the United States and Iran… some of the authors… retain strong links to Iranian culture through their parents and grandparents, who continue to struggle with the English language and cultural assimilation… The works in this collection also show how Iranian culture pervades the food, language, and gestures of everyday life of Iranian-Americans… Several authors have recently traveled to Iran, either for the first time or after a long separation, only to discover that they can no more be completely Iranian than they can be completely American. Distance from Iran has often created an idealized image of the homeland. Many of these works bear traces of such an idealization of Persian traditions, customs, cuisine, landscape, and family relationships…”
Persis M. Karim also edited another anthology, “Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing By Women of the Iranian Diaspora.”
This collection will be of keen interest to those wanting to know more about what Iranians living in this country are thinking and feeling.
September 23, 2020
I read Paris Rendez-vous, a short story by Persis M. Karim, for my Diasporic Literature class. I would just make a summarize here, so I can remember what I read.
So, 'I', as the main character, was an American woman whose father waa an American-Iranian and mother a French. So I'm guessing 'I' was half white and obviously had more privilege. Then, she had a cousin whom she never met and who was an original Iranian born. Their fathers were both born in France and moved back to Iran after WW1. However, 'I''s father moved to the US and became a US citizen, there 'I' was born and raised. On the other hand, Minoo, her cousin, was born raised in Iran, both she and her father had gone to jail for false accusation under Shah or something like that, I don't get it. And I said before, both 'I' and Minoo never met only exchanged a few words with letters. Then they decided to meet in Paris. Minoo tried so hard to get visa for the US visitation, but she never get it just because she was an Iranian, and those Americans assumed that she was a terrorist, though they never even read her document. 'I' helped Minoo to get that visa in order for Minoo to be able to visit her family as well as to meet her. However, as hard as 'I' tried to persuade them to give Minoo her visa, they wouldn't give them. Then they decided to bring a souvenir of their fathers birth sertivicate, though it was hard as none of their fathers or even them were French or ever lived in France. Yet they still got them. Moreover, as they went back to wherever they were staying in Paris, they heard that there was a terrorist attack in the United Nations building in New York and many were killed in the accident. Therefore, things will be harder for Minoo, though probably not much for 'I'.
So, 'I', as the main character, was an American woman whose father waa an American-Iranian and mother a French. So I'm guessing 'I' was half white and obviously had more privilege. Then, she had a cousin whom she never met and who was an original Iranian born. Their fathers were both born in France and moved back to Iran after WW1. However, 'I''s father moved to the US and became a US citizen, there 'I' was born and raised. On the other hand, Minoo, her cousin, was born raised in Iran, both she and her father had gone to jail for false accusation under Shah or something like that, I don't get it. And I said before, both 'I' and Minoo never met only exchanged a few words with letters. Then they decided to meet in Paris. Minoo tried so hard to get visa for the US visitation, but she never get it just because she was an Iranian, and those Americans assumed that she was a terrorist, though they never even read her document. 'I' helped Minoo to get that visa in order for Minoo to be able to visit her family as well as to meet her. However, as hard as 'I' tried to persuade them to give Minoo her visa, they wouldn't give them. Then they decided to bring a souvenir of their fathers birth sertivicate, though it was hard as none of their fathers or even them were French or ever lived in France. Yet they still got them. Moreover, as they went back to wherever they were staying in Paris, they heard that there was a terrorist attack in the United Nations building in New York and many were killed in the accident. Therefore, things will be harder for Minoo, though probably not much for 'I'.
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April 21, 2022My tongue, built of pocelain,
dams a decade of questions.
(Arash Saedinia)
I am that ephemeral moment in history
when truth and reality fornicate
in a cruel sandstorm of birth and destruction.
(Laleh Khalili)
They say that this is the end of the road:
an ocean, an ocean of waiting;
with waves to lick your open wounds;
with salt that bites,
with salt that leaches
the color from out of the blood.
Zara Houchmand
Haunting.
dams a decade of questions.
(Arash Saedinia)
I am that ephemeral moment in history
when truth and reality fornicate
in a cruel sandstorm of birth and destruction.
(Laleh Khalili)
They say that this is the end of the road:
an ocean, an ocean of waiting;
with waves to lick your open wounds;
with salt that bites,
with salt that leaches
the color from out of the blood.
Zara Houchmand
Haunting.
July 6, 2025
the other day,
I had to learn to unlearn you
the other day
Azizam, how does one recount a story
in a language no one seems to understand?
I had to learn to unlearn you
the other day
Azizam, how does one recount a story
in a language no one seems to understand?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews