Solmaz Sharif

About the Author

Solmaz Sharif is an acclaimed Iranian-American poet whose work confronts the intersections of language, war, and identity with unflinching precision. Born in Istanbul to Iranian parents and raised in California, Sharif draws from her experiences as a child of immigrants and the lingering shadows of conflict to craft poetry that interrogates the lexicon of empire and displacement. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and has received numerous awards, including a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her debut collection, Customs, explores the customs of surveillance and belonging, earning critical praise for its innovative use of military terminology repurposed into intimate, subversive verse. Sharif's poetry continues to challenge readers to reconsider the power dynamics embedded in everyday words.