Ari Honarvar, author of "A Girl Called Rumi" with Cathia Geller
Mar 14, 2022
In partnership with Elliott Bay Book Company, we are proud to present Ari Honarvar, author of A Girl Called Rumi, in conversation with SISCA Board President Cathia Geller.
Date: Wednesday, February 16. Time: 6 pm PST.
This event will virtually be hosted by Elliott Bay Book Company, and it will also be live-streamed on Facebook @elliottbaybookcompany.
Ari Honarvar’s debut novel, A Girl Called Rumi, published late in 2021 by Portland’s Forest Avenue Press, draws on her background and what has become lifework, that of using music, poetry, and stories to build bridges where governments, especially, have put conflicts, strife, and wars as barriers. She does this with a non-profit she founded, Rumi With a View, and in a different way, with this beguiling novel.
“Ari Honarvar’s gorgeous debut novel, A Girl Called Rumi, shuttles between Iran and America as it grapples with the trauma of the Iran-Iraq war, the crackdown on female freedoms, and intergenerational conflict as well as the costs of resilience and forgiveness as children and parents are forced to make difficult decisions. This pulsating and culturally rich Iran is seen through the eyes of its fables, storytellers, poetry, and politics. In delicate and meditative prose, Honarvar takes her unforgettable characters― mystics, siblings, parents, best friends, enemies, fanatics― on a journey through the ‘Seven Valleys of Love’ eventually culminating in how healing happens or doesn’t, and how to move on. Iran’s poets and poetry guide this heartfelt novel into a story as majestic as the thirty birds who make up the Simorgh, the fantastical being and mythical heartbeat of A Girl Called Rumi. ” ―Soniah Kamal.
Registration (https://www.elliottbaybook.com/.../ari-honarvar-cathia...) is free, and the book may be purchased upon registration. This event will also be live-streamed on Facebook.
Honarvar's life work (link to https://rumiwithaview.com/)—using music, poetry, and stories to build bridges where governments, especially, have put conflicts, strife, and wars as barriers--is very much in line with SISCA’s goals. We are so pleased she has agreed to join us for this event, produced in partnership with Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company.
FREE Registration!
