Iranian Womens' Voices

It was also shortlisted for the Saltire Prize for Best Book of Poetry and was one of the winners of the inaugural James Berry Prize and a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Marjorie’s poetry has been published widely, most recently on London’s Poems on the Underground. She is one of the UNESCO Cities of Literature’s ILX 10 ‘Rising Stars of UK Writing’ and an editorial team member of WritersMosaic.

In 1979, at the age of twelve, Shara and her mother went into exile in Germany. She relocated to London in 2012, and later moved to Wales to focus on her writing. In 2021 she was awarded a ‘Representing Wales’ writer’s award. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals, including WritersMosaic, New Welsh Review, Planet and Nation Cymru. She was ‘Highly Commended’ by the Stephen Spender Prize 2022 for her translation of the poem ‘Vision at Shore’ by her father, the renowned Iranian poet Manouchehr Atashi.

Her writing includes a novel and collection of short stories These Two Roses (Exiled Writers Ink, 2020). Poetry collections include Departure published in Iran and O Delilah which was banned. Most recently, ten of her poems appear in the anthology of Afghan and Iranian women poets Songs of Freedom (Afsana Press, 2024). She has also translated novels by American writer Karen Joy Fowler and the Polish writer Marek Hłasko into Farsi. She is a contributing writer and critic for WritersMosaic.