Sheema Kalbasi facts for kids

Sheema Kalbasi, born on November 20, 1972, in Tehran, Iran, is a writer and poet. She is from Iran, Denmark, and America. She writes about important topics like fairness for women, helping people affected by war, and making sure everyone has human rights and can speak freely. She also makes films about women's issues, children's rights, and helping refugees. Sheema grew up in Pakistan and Denmark. Now, she lives in the United States.

About Sheema

Sheema Kalbasi is a poet and a person who helps others. She also translates writings from one language to another. Her work is known all over the world.

She has taught children who are refugees. She has also worked with big groups like the UNHCR. This group helps people who have had to leave their homes because of war or other problems. She also worked with the Center for Refugees in Pakistan. In Denmark, she even trained to be a soldier.

Her poems have been put into many collections and translated into over twenty languages. Experts have praised her work. In 2012, a Canadian Senator named Roméo Dallaire read parts of her poem Hezbollah during a speech. This poem also won an award called Harvest International. It has appeared in books like The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and its Exiles.

Another one of her poems, The Passenger, was chosen to be performed in New York in 2008. In 2016, two of her poems, Possession and Dancing Tango, were turned into songs. These songs were performed at a university in Virginia. Sheema's poems and translations are used in school lessons around the world. They have also been made into short films and set to music. One song based on her work was even performed at the Smithsonian National Museum.

Sheema Kalbasi wrote a book of poems called Echoes in Exile in 2006. This book is on the reading list for women's studies at Stony Brook University. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, which is a big award for writers. She also received an award from the United Nations for her humanitarian work.

Sheema also translates old poems. She has introduced English speakers to poems by Jahan Khatun and Mahasti Ganjavi. They were Persian princesses and poets from long ago. She also translated poems by Simin Behbahani, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. A composer in the Netherlands set Simin Behbahani's poems to music.

A famous poet named Naomi Shihab Nye wrote about Sheema's book, Spoon and Shrapnel: Verse and Wartime Recipes. She said the book is like a "treasure." It has simple recipes from Sheema's childhood in Iran during wartime. It also has poems that ask important questions about why there is so much war.

In 2019, Sheema was asked to speak at the World Food Programme in Rome. This is a United Nations group that helps feed people. She talked about how poverty can make families marry off their young children. She explained that this is a problem in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, South Asia, and even some parts of the United States.

In 2009, Sheema Kalbasi joined 266 other Iranian writers and artists. They signed a letter that said sorry for the unfair treatment of a group of people called the Baháʼís. This letter was published online.

Books She Wrote

• Spoon and Shrapnel: Verse and Wartime Recipes (2024)
• The Poetry of Iranian Women (Editor, 2008)
• Seven Valleys of Love: A Bilingual Anthology of Women Poets from Medieval Persia to Present-Day Iran (Translator, Editor, 2008)
• Echoes in Exile (2006) – A book of her poems.
• Sangsar (The Stoning) (Persian, 2005)

Films She Made

Awards and Nominations

• Human Rights Award and Recognition, from the Center for Refugees, UNHCR, Pakistan.
• Hezbollah, from Echoes in Exile, Best Poem, Harvest International.
• The Passenger, third place, Jersey works.

Nominations

• Echoes in Exile, nominated for the Annual Library of Virginia Literary Award, 2008.
• Echoes in Exile, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, 2008.
• Seven Valleys of Love, nominated for The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, 2008.
• Seven Valleys of Love, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, 2008.
• Seven Valleys of Love, nominated for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2008.

See also

• List of Iranian women