This book was the won the 2022 Elixir Poetry Prize. Mohassessy went through the Pacific University MFA program after I did, so I hadn't had a chance to meet her, apart from very briefly at this year's AWP.
This is a strong and compelling debut, full of both personal history and the history of a country (Iran) before, during and after the Revolution. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I worked with an older man who had fled Iran to escape persecution from the new regime, and he taught me a couple of words of Farsi. He was such a courteous, soft-spoken man, with a sort of wisdom and nobility I hadn't seen before, and I think I have had a soft spot for the Persian culture and language ever since. It sounds superficial, I suppose. But if nothing else, it was a doorway into looking at the world differently, and into looking at a different part of the world with curious eyes. This book had the same effect on me.
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