Click here to watch the Special Session at the British Institute of Persian Studies – Gingko Library Conference during which the New Divan project was launched, with Joachim Sartorius and Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and introduced by Narguess Farzad and Barbara Haus Schwepcke (2015).

“On the occasion of the launch of this great project of lyrical dialogues between East and West the former head of the Goethe Institut will be in conversation with one of Iran’s foremost contemporary novelists. In 2019 in Gingko Library will publish A New Divan, an anthology of 24 poems, twelve by poets of the MENA region and twelve from the West, inspired by the culture of the Other. Building on the rich tradition of poets who have sought inspiration from, and responded to, other cultures, and particularly in relation to their poetry, A New Divan will demonstrate how the Other can be a source of inspiration rather than fear. Each poem will appear in New Divan in English and, where the poem was not written in English, both in its original language of composition and in English translation.”