Shara Atashi is an author and translator based in Aberystwyth. She translates from Persian and German and writes creative non-fiction, fiction and poetry in English. She was involved in literary life from early childhood as her father, the late Iranian poet Manouchehr Atashi, was a professor of literature and editor of Iran’s national broadcasting magazine during the Pahlavi era. Shara left Iran with her mother after the 1978 revolution at the age of twelve and lived and studied law and English in Germany. After years of legal work in Berlin and the Hague she relocated to the UK where she joined the Peterborough Writers’ Circle under the guidance of Tim Wilson and began to actively share her writing through local publications. In 2021 she became an author in Literature Wales’ Representing Wales: Writers of Colour programme. Shara is a regular contributor of literary essays and reviews to the New Welsh Review and Writers Mosaic.. She was awarded as a translator in the poetry translation competition (https://www.stephen-spender.org/stephen-spender-prizewinners-2022/). Her long essay on the current women-led revolution in Iran will appear in the Planet Magazine‘s February 2023 issue (https://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/). To learn more, visit https://writersmosaic.org.uk/people/shara-atashi/ and listen to her interview with author and broadcaster Colin Grant. Shara is involved in the production of an Iranian opera which is planned for the 2024/2025 season by the Welsh National Opera.
