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Background Information
Ali Alizadeh
"Ali Alizadeh was born in 1976 in Tehran, the capital of the then Kingdom of Iran, two years before the Iranian Revolution transformed the country into an Islamic Republic. He attended primary and ‘guidance’ school in his birthplace and produced his first public writing – a simplified prose version of an episode of the early medieval epic Shah-Nameh (Book of Kings) – at 13, winning a young adults’ literary award, and becoming the subject of a documentary film for Iran’s national television ... " [Click here to continue reading]
- Ali Alizadeh is Poet of the Month"Are poems chiefly inspired or crafted? What a question! If I have to pick one, I would say inspired, if only because inspiration seems more necessary. Without it – an initiation, a beginning, no matter how clumsy or hesitant – there would be nothing there to craft ... "
- Tina Giannoukos Reviews Ali Alizadeh"Ali Alizadeh’s latest collection, Ashes in the Air, blows across the fault lines of our manifold present. These are poems of strong rhetorical force. With remarkable alertness to volatile complexities, they engage in an argument with barely comprehensible realities of exclusion and inclusion. They are radical, philosophical and profoundly affective ... "
- Ali AlizadehAsk your teacher for the Username and Password to access this Podcast.
"'Ali Alizadeh is an acclaimed writer and poet. His books include the historical novel The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc, the short story collection Transactions, and the literary memoir Iran, My Grandfather (shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s Literary Award), as well as three poetry collections Towards the End, Ashes in the Air (shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry) and Eyes in Times of War."
Growing Up Muslim in Australia
Ali Alizadeh writes about what it is like to be a muslim in Australia. His chapter in this book is entitled, Leaving God. Borrow the book from the library.
- Ali Alizadeh on catalysts and inspiration"What inspires you? Tension, disturbance, contradictions, negation; conflict. And other writers, particularly Continental philosophers, who’ve written on these themes, such as Badiou, Žižek, Marx, Lacan, Rancière, Benjamin, Hegel, Foucault, etc. Reading philosophy is a great inspiration for me, and usually after reading a very difficult and obtuse philosophical text I get inspired to write poetry as a ‘creative response’, to see if I’ve at all understood what I’ve been reading ... "
- Ali Alizadeh"What does it mean to a life to be born two years before a revolution that will rip your country apart? Ali Alizadeh was born in Tehran in 1976. He grew up with a love of literature, and immersed in the Marxist ideologies of his immediate family, while a Revolution went horribly wrong across wider Iran. The young Ali grew into a belief that language had power. This was until his family left Iran and moved to Australia—leaving Ali wrestling with his identity and wondering whether his new language still had power ... "
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- Your TerroristAli Alizadeh reads his poem, Your Terrorist.