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Solmaz Sharif

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Solmaz Sharif
سولماز شریف
Sharif reading at AWP 2017
Born1983 (age 42–43)
Istanbul, Turkey
CitizenshipUnited States[1]
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley (BA)[2]
New York University (MFA)[2]
OccupationsPoet, academic
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
Notable worksLook
Customs: Poems
Notable awardsFinalist, National Book Award for Poetry (2016) (Look)[3]
American Book Award (2017) (Look)[2]
Websitesolmazsharif.com

Solmaz Sharif (Persian: سولماز شریف; born 1983) is an Iranian-American poet. Her debut poetry collection, Look, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Poetry.[3] She is an Associate Professor (Shirley Shenker Chair) in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.[4]

Early life and education

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Sharif was born in Istanbul, Turkey, as her parents were in the process of emigrating from Iran to the United States; her parents had studied in the US during the 1970s but had returned to Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Newborn Sharif and her family settled first in Texas, where her father finished his studies; the family moved again a few years later to Birmingham, Alabama, where her mother finished her bachelor's degree. After her mother graduated the family settled in Los Angeles, California, when Sharif was 11 years old. While living in Los Angeles, Sharif was exposed to the largest Iranian population outside of Iran itself, but was ostracized by her Iranian peers upon her arrival because of her family's struggle assimilating.[5]

At sixteen years old, Sharif attended an Iranian feminist conference, with a keynote speech by Angela Davis. Here, she discovered the phrase and label "women of color", which Davis used to refer to the audience of women before her.[5]

Sharif received her BA degree from UC Berkeley, and her MFA degree from New York University.[6]

Career and recognition

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In 2011, Sharif was among the 4 winners of the Unterberg Discovery Poetry Contest, hosted by the Unterberg Poetry Center. Sharif's 2011 win was published by the Boston Review.[7] Sharif received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013.[8] She has also received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Stanford University, and the Poetry Foundation. Sharif won the Theodore H. Holmes '51 and Bernice Holmes National Poetry Prize.[9][6] Sharif has given numerous readings around the US, including at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.[10] Sharif was one of the judges for 2023 National Book Award for Poetry.[11]

Look, Sharif’s debut collection of poetry, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Poetry,[12] a finalist for the 2017 PEN Open Book Award,[13] one of The New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2016,[14] a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016,[15] a Washington Post Best Poetry Collection of 2016,[16] one of The New Yorker‘s Books We Loved in 2016,[17] and one of the San Francisco Chronicle‘s 100 Recommended Books of 2016.[18]

As of 2023, Sharif teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.[19] Previously she was an assistant professor of English at Arizona State University.[20] Before that Sharif was a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where she had previously been a Stegner Fellow.[6] She is the former managing director of the Asian American Writers' Workshop.[6]

Influences and themes

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Some early influences include poems by Walt Whitman, which her mother would read to her as bedtime stories. While studying at UC Berkeley, she was part of the People for Poetry program and studied June Jordan's works, citing her as an influence. More current influences include Audre Lorde's essay, "Uses of Erotics: Erotics as Power," Hannah Weiner's Code Poems, Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead, Martha Collins’s Blue Front, and M. Nourbese Philip's Zong!.[5]

Look, Sharif's first book, "asks us to see the ongoing costs of war as the unbearable losses of human lives and also the insidious abuses against our everyday speech."[21] Look draws on the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, and challenges readers to confront the war's effects on language.[22]

Reception

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Look was reviewed favorably by The Los Angeles Review as an account of war's effects on culture and language.[23]

Customs: Poems, her second collection, considers the contingent status of immigrant women in the US; the book received positive criticism by Kamran Javadizadeh in The New York Review of Books.[24]

Bibliography

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Poetry collections

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  • Look: Poems. Graywolf Press, 2016. ISBN 9781555977443
  • Customs: Poems. Graywolf Press, 2022. ISBN 9781644450796

Short publications

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Print

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Online

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Awards

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References

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  1. ↑ "Solmaz Sharif Refuses to Fill in the Gaps". The New Yorker. 2022-03-21.
  2. 1 2 3 "Solmaz Sharif". Poetry Foundation. August 27, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Look". National Book Foundation.
  4. ↑ "Solmaz Sharif". University of California, Berkeley Department of English.
  5. 1 2 3 Clemmons, Zinzi (27 July 2016). "The Role of the Poet: An Interview with Solmaz Sharif". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2017-03-25.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Solmaz Sharif". Poetry Foundation.
  7. ↑ "Contests". Boston Review. Retrieved 2026-06-05.
  8. ↑ "Solmaz Sharif". National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  9. ↑ "Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts Announces Recipient of the Holmes National Poetry Prize". Lewis Center for the Arts. 2017-07-17. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  10. ↑ "Solmaz Sharif Reads at Bread Loaf". New England Review. 2017-02-15. Archived from the original on 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  11. ↑ Stewart, Sophia (September 15, 2023). "2023 National Book Award Longlists Announced". Publishers Weekly.
  12. ↑ "The 2016 National Book Awards Finalists". The New Yorker. 2016-10-06. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  13. ↑ "2017 PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD". PEN America. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  14. ↑ "100 Notable Books of 2016". The New York Times. 2016-11-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  15. ↑ "Best Books 2016 - Poetry". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  16. ↑ Lund, Elizabeth (2016-11-17). "Best poetry collections of 2016". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  17. ↑ "The Books We Loved in 2016". The New Yorker. 2016-12-13. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  18. ↑ "Best of 2016: 100 recommended books". San Francisco Chronicle. 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  19. ↑ "Solmaz Sharif". UC Berkeley English.
  20. ↑ LaRue-Sandler, Kristen (28 August 2019). "New faculty in ASU English shows sustained commitment to charter values". ASU News.
  21. ↑ "Look". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  22. ↑ Staff, Harriet (2017-11-13). "Washington Post Reviews Solmaz Sharif's Look and More". Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  23. ↑ West, Phillip (2016-08-02). "Book Review: Look by Solmaz Sharif - The Los Angeles Review". The Los Angeles Review. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  24. ↑ Javadizadeh, Kamran (2022-04-21). "In Between States: Customs, by Solmaz Sharif". The New York Review of Books. 69 (7): 16–20.
  25. ↑ "Former Stegner Fellows". Stanford Creative Writing Program. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  26. ↑ "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  27. ↑ "Winner, Solmaz Sharif". RJF. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  28. ↑ "Literary Awards Winners Archive". PEN America. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  29. ↑ "Award: Before Columbus Foundation American Book". Shelf Awareness. August 8, 2017. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
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