Mehdi Mousavi: Protest Literature 2

Mousavi will read from *The Last Kiss*, his bilingual Persian-English collection of poems. He will then speak with Prof. Dr Dirk Wiemann, Professor of English Literature at the University of Potsdam. The discussion will focus on life under repression in Iran, imprisonment and censorship, protest, exile and belonging, as well as the experience of building a new home after being forced to leave the country.

Mehdi Mousavi is the founder of the Iranian Postmodern Ghazal Movement. As a result of his literary work, he was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment and 99 lashes. He was imprisoned, later fled Iran and eventually came to Norway as an ICORN writer.

The event is part of the ‘Protest Literature’ series, which explores the relationship between literature, resistance and political participation. The readings will take place in Persian (Farsi) and English. They will be followed by a talk and a discussion.