# Sheema Kalbasi

Sheema Kalbasi (Persian: شیما کلباسی; born November 20, 1972, in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-Danish-American poet and writer who addresses issues of feminism, war, refugees, human rights, and freedom of expression. She is also a filmmaker focusing on women's issues and activism for women's rights, minority rights, children's rights, and refugees' rights. Kalbasi grew up in Pakistan and Denmark and now resides in the United States.

## Biography

Sheema Kalbasi is a poet, literary translator, and humanitarian whose work has garnered international recognition. She has taught refugee children and worked with organizations such as the UNHCR, the Center for Refugees in Pakistan, and UNA Denmark. In Denmark, she also trained and served as a defense soldier.
Her poetry has been anthologized and translated into over twenty languages, earning critical acclaim. In 2012, Canadian Senator LGen (Ret.) the Hon. Roméo Dallaire concluded a speech on the situation in Iran by reciting excerpts from her poem, Hezbollah. A winner of Harvest International, the poem has also been anthologized and published amongst others in The Forbidden: Poems from Iran and its Exiles, the Atlanta Review, and Iranian and Diasporic Literature in the 21st Century: A Critical Study by Dr. Daniel Grassian. Her poem The Passenger was selected by invitation for performance at the Tribute World Trade Center in New York in 2008. In 2016, her poems Possession and Dancing Tango were adapted into an art song for mezzo-soprano and piano and performed at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Kalbasi’s poetry and translations have been incorporated into academic curricula worldwide, adapted into short films, and set to music for soprano and piano trio compositions. A notable performance of a composition based on her work took place at the Smithsonian National Museum.
Kalbasi is the author of the full-length poetry collection Echoes in Exile (PRA Publishing, USA, 2006), which has been featured on Stony Brook University’s Women and Gender Studies reading list. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a nominee for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, she has received a United Nations humanitarian award and grants from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Her translation work includes introducing English-speaking audiences to the poetry of Jahan Khatun, a 14th-century Persian princess and poet, and Mahasti Ganjavi, a medieval Persian poet. She also translated the poetry of Simin Behbahani, a two-time Nobel Prize nominee in Literature, which was set to music by composer Ramin Amin Tafreshi in the Netherlands. Notably, acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes about Kalbasi's Spoon and Shrapnel: Verse and Wartime Recipes (Daraja Press, Canada, 2024): “This book is a treasure. Sheema Kalbasi offers an exquisitely nourishing combination of simple, sustaining recipes recalled from her war-ravaged Iranian childhood, along with evocative poems asking essential questions—why so much war?”
In 2019, she was invited to Rome as the main speaker at the United Nations World Food Programme, where she delivered an address on the impact of poverty on families' decisions to marry off their underage children, highlighting it as a global issue affecting the Middle East, South Asia, South America, and even the United States, where underage marriage persists in certain states.
In 2009, Kalbasi joined 266 Iranian academics, writers, artists, and journalists in signing an open letter of apology published on Iranian.com condemning the persecution of Baháʼís.

## Books

* Spoon and Shrapnel: Verse and Wartime Recipes (Daraja Press, Canada, 2024)
* The Poetry of Iranian Women (Editor, Reel Content Publishing, USA, 2008)
* Seven Valleys of Love: A Bilingual Anthology of Women Poets from Medieval Persia to Present-Day Iran (Translator, Editor, PRA Publishing, USA, 2008)
* Echoes in Exile (PRA Publishing, USA, 2006) – A full-length poetry collection.
* Sangsar (The Stoning) (Persian, Sinbad Publishing, USA, 2005)

## Filmography

| Film | Date | |
| Women on the Front Line | 2013 | Documentary |
| Simin Behbahani —For the Dream to Ride | 2013 | Poem film |
| Banafsheh Hejazi —Disappointment | 2013 | Poem film |
| Sholeh Wolpe —I Was Sung into This World | 2013 | Poem film |
| Farzaneh Ghavami —The Park | 2013 | Poem film |

## Awards

* Human Rights Award and Recognition, Center for Refugees, UNHCR, Islamabad, Pakistan
* Hezbollah, from Echoes in Exile, Best Poem, Harvest International.
* The Passenger, third place, Jersey works.
Nominations
* Echoes in Exile, Collection, Annual Library of Virginia Literary Award, 2008
* Echoes in Exile, Pushcart Prize, 2008
* Seven Valleys of Love, The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, 2008
* Seven Valleys of Love, Pushcart Prize, 2008
* Seven Valleys of Love, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2008