DR Parwana fayyaz
I am a scholar and teacher of classical and medieval Persian literature, specialising in long narrative poems (masnavi). I am also a poet and translator working with multiple languages. My first collection of poetry, Forty Names, inspired by the Afghan-Persian storytelling tradition, was published in 2021 and was named a New Statesman Book of the Year and a White Review Book of the Year. Forty Names is translated into Italian and Hebrew.
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, I was raised in Pakistan as a refugee. I studied at Stanford, earning my B.A. in comparative literature and an M.A. in Religious Studies, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where I completed my PhD in 2020. Shortly thereafter, I was elected to a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where I currently live, teach, and write. I will be joining the University of Virginia's Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures as an assistant professor in January 2025.
2025 Publications:
[Scholarship] New peer-reviewed article published:
Witnessing through Verse: Afghan Women’s Poetics of Resilience
[Creative writing] In Search of My Silenced Language
[Translation] 2024: Four Poems by Mahbouba Ibrahimi
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, I was raised in Pakistan as a refugee. I studied at Stanford, earning my B.A. in comparative literature and an M.A. in Religious Studies, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where I completed my PhD in 2020. Shortly thereafter, I was elected to a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where I currently live, teach, and write. I will be joining the University of Virginia's Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures as an assistant professor in January 2025.
2025 Publications:
[Scholarship] New peer-reviewed article published:
Witnessing through Verse: Afghan Women’s Poetics of Resilience
[Creative writing] In Search of My Silenced Language
[Translation] 2024: Four Poems by Mahbouba Ibrahimi
