Haleh Liza Gafori © Beowulf Sheehan / Blue Flower Arts
A New York City–born translator, performance artist, writer, and educator of Persian descent, Haleh Liza Gafori’s translations of the Persian mystic and sage Rumi have been collected in Gold (2022) and Water (2025), both published by New York Review Books. A 2026 and 2024 MacDowell Fellow, Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on the books and has presented her work, via performances, lectures, and workshops, at institutions such as Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, Stanford University, the Academy of American Poets, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has been published by Columbia University Press, Harvard Review, Paris Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in the MFA program at St. Joseph’s University, and her translations have been incorporated in college curricula across the country.
