Abol Froushan

Abol Froushan left the Shah’s Iran to live and study in London in 1975. In 1979, he received his BSc in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, University of London. In 1983, the sudden death of a seven-year-old relative in a car accident set Froushan off on an uncharted path of writing poetry. In the meantime, at Imperial College, Abol completed his Masters in social and economic studies and his PhD in fluid dynamics (which was awarded the same day Abol was granted UK Ordinary Residence). His British passport was issued on Valentine’s Day in 1990. On it, “Place of Birth: Tehran, 10/10/1957”.

Since its eventful beginning in 1983, Froushan’s career in literature and performance has encompassed poetry, video, audio recordings and literary criticism, and has run alongside his career in high-tech industries, from nuclear engineering to information architecture for banking and insurance industries. His work since 1986 has taken him to numerous places, including London, Manchester, Bristol, Connecticut and Toronto. Since 2006, Abol has built artistic collaborations with the well known Iranian poet Ali Abdolrezaei. Together with Parham Shahrjerdi and Mansor Pooyan, they formed London Skool, a band of multilingual poets and critics whose aim is to create poetry and texts through a hybridisation of languages, genres and lifestyles, challenging accepted norms, shaking up literary standards and proposing new directions for exile and post-exile literature.

Abol Froushan has published two selections of his own poetry: A Language Against Language (in English) (Exiled Writers Ink, 2008) and the bilingual volume, I need your desert for my sneeze (in Persian & English) (PoetryPub, 2009). He has also been published in the anthology Silver Throat of the Moon (ed. J. Langer; Five Leaves, 2005) and the Exiled Ink magazine, as well as in multimedia web-based publications including www.photoinsight.org.uk and Poetrymag. His English translations of Ali Abdolrezaei are In Riskdom where I lived (Exiled Writers Ink, 2008) and the forthcoming Sixology (PoetryPub, 2010). He has also translated Parham Shahrjerdi’s Risk of Poetry.

He has publicly performed his poetry in select London venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, the Poetry Café, New End Theatre, Arcola Theatre, the Waterman Centre, Scala Theatre and Riverside Studios. Bibliography

Poetry

A Language Against Language (A collection of 28 poems translated by Abol Froushan into English), Exiled Writers Ink, 2008
I need your desert for my sneeze, PoetryPub, 2009
In Riskdom Where I Lived (A collection of 28 poems by Ali Abdolrezaei translated by Abol Froushan into English), Exiled Writers Ink, 2008
Sixology (poems by Ali Abdolrezaei translated by Abol Froushan into English), PoetryPub, 2010 (forthcoming)
in the anthology Silver Throat of the Moon, ed. J. Langer, Five Leaves, 2005

Web publications

Green Trilogy
Green Trilogy
Journey on the First Person: A web exhibition At the Priory (trans. of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poem)
Matchbox (trans. of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poem)
Tale (trans. of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poem)
Story (trans. of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poem)
Court Hearing
The Road (trans. of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poem)
Translations of Ali Abdolrezaei’s poems on Poetry International Web
Risk of Poetry (trans. of Parham Shahrjerdi’s essays on poetry)

Reviews and essays

Fragments Part 1
Fragments Part 1
Fragments Part 2
London’s waiting sisterly (a review of the poem Censorship)

Poetry videos

Risk of Poetry event at Poetry Cafe, London
Risk of Poetry event at Poetry Cafe, London
Go as the go that I went
War War To Victory: Part 1
War War To Victory: Part 2
The Road
Album
Cloud
Moonface
Tabriz
Paris in Renault