Sepideh Jodeyri
# Sepideh Jodeyri

Sepideh Jodeyri (Persian: سپیده جدیری born 23 May 1976, corresponding to 2 Khordâd 1355 by the Iranian calendar, in Ahvaz, Iran) is an Iranian poet, literary critic, translator and journalist living in Washington DC, United States.

A winner of the Jovellanos International Poetry Prize in 2015 for one of her poems, Chãk, and a graduate in chemical engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Jodeyri has published several works, including six poetry collections, a collection of short stories and an anthology of her poems. Her articles and interviews have been published in Iranian newspapers and magazines as well as European ones. She has also translated poetry books by Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis Borges as well as the graphic novel, Blue Is the Warmest Color by Jul Maroh into Persian.

In the aftermath of the highly contested 2009 presidential election in Iran, which resulted in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2009-2013), Jodeyri spoke publicly in support of the pro-democracy movement (known as Iranian Green Movement). Shortly after, Jodeyri's works were banned inside Iran, her close friends were put in prison, forcing her to leave the country and move to Italy in February 2011. She stayed two years in Italy as the guest writer of ICORN. Jodeyri, her husband and her son live in Washington DC, the United States right now.

## Works

She translated Blue is the Warmest Color, as Abi Garmtarin Rang Ast. Conservative groups in Iran criticised her. There was a plan for a debut of this translation in Tehran, but it was later canceled.

## Khorshid Prize

Because of her belief in Feminism, she founded a feminist prize, the Khorshid Prize in 2008 with the stated aim of recognizing "the best poetry book of the year written by an Iranian woman." The prize included 5 Bahar-e Azadi gold coins (total value at the time about 14.5 million rials, equivalent to $1,400 USD or about 1,050 euros). Sponsored by Alghadir hospital chair Farideh Farhadi, ophthalmologist Fatemeh Haghbin, biologist Azam Paki and poet-critic Fatemeh Salarvand, the judging committee included Jodeyri herself (as the chair), poet-translators Azita Ghahreman and Pegah Ahmadi, poet-critics Roya Tafti, Bahareh Rezaei and Mehri Jafari. The prize was being held for four years inside Iran though it was declared banned after Jodeyri left the country in 2011. The chairwoman she had assigned on behalf of herself and one of their sponsors were being interrogated by Iran's intelligence service agents several times at the time.

