As part of a literary residency honoring the late Iraj Khademi—beloved Washington State community organizer and poet—MELC welcomed poet-translator Adeeba Shahid Talukder and translator, librettist, and multidisciplinary artist Niloufar Talebi. On November 13 and 15, Third Place Books and the Elliott Bay Book Company hosted two vibrant evenings of Persian poetry to celebrate the launch of Elegies of the Earth (trans. Talebi, 2025) and Shape of Extinction (trans. Talukder and Fani, 2025), bringing into English the work of Ahmad Shamlu (d. 2000) and Bijan Jalali (d. 2000).
MELC graduate Amelia Ossorio—whose illustration graces the cover of Shape of Extinction—hosted a table at both bookstores that highlighted the sociability and hospitality at the heart of Persianate literary culture. Guests were welcomed with tea, Iranian and Mexican sweets, and beautifully crafted pins of symbolic fruits such as
pomegranates.
On November 14, MELC held a remarkable follow-up event: an open-mic ghazal reading in nearly a dozen languages: Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Korean, Russian, Yiddish, Amharic, English, Uzbek, and French. In a room filled with sixty faculty, students, and community members, Adeeba—trained in the Hindustani musical
tradition—sang three ghazals by the iconic Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz and read a couple of poems from her collection Shahr-e-Jaanaan. The evening concluded with a powerful reading by Seattle Civic Poet (2025–26) Dujie Tahat.
Buoyed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the audience, MELC looks forward to hosting more events of this kind in the future. Events that celebrate our multilingualism and creative expressions are all the more crucial given the austerity measures that undermine the humanities across the country. We are grateful to Mr. Babak Parviz and Afshin Sepehri whose generosity made this residency possible. We are also thankful to Leyla Salmassi and Shahrzad Shams of Peyvand NPO and Yashar Shayan of the MENA Heritage Month.
To ensure that vibrant literary gatherings like these continue, MELC warmly invites its community supporters to make a contribution to the residency via this website.