Lasting impressions
Roshangar's Baressi-Ketab covers
the most vital and interesting writing in Persian today
January 21, 2004
The Iranian
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Majid Roshangar,
the
editor of Baressi-Ketab. He struck me as a man of extraordinary
gentleness, patience, and erudition-a walking encyclopedia
of Iranian
literature, blessed with a keen critical insight that could situate
this
knowledge in the larger context of world literature. I was just
beginning to read Persian then, and eager for guidance that would
point
me toward worthwhile authors.
Majid kindly sent me a copy of his
journal, but I was out of my depth. I struggled with a few pages
and
left it on the shelf. Every few months a new issue would arrive,
and I
would add it, with a pang of guilt, to the growing stack that
sat there
inscrutably waiting for my Farsi reading skills to improve.
One day, my uncle Ahmad came to visit and spotted the pile. He
leafed through a few pages and was soon lost to the world. I went to
the kitchen to fix dinner. I was working on the salad when a loud shout
made me jump suddenly. Ahmad stood in the doorway, waving a copy of
Baressi-Ketab, shouting at me, "This is a gold mine! Have
you read it?" I shook my head and he pounded fiercely on the counter:
"You're a
fool!
Read it! Read every issue, cover to cover!" When it comes to ideas and
literature, passion tends to push aside politeness in Ahmad's expressive
style, but I have come to cherish his rough advice.
Over the years my Farsi improved and the stack of soft-covered
volumes, now grown to fill a long shelf, has indeed proved to be a gold
mine-a reliable source both of intelligent critical opinion and literary
gems of poetry and short stories from the giants of contemporary Iranian
literature as well as new authors.
Originally conceived in 1963 when Majid Roshangar was still
publishing in Tehran, Baressi-Ketab has been based in Los Angeles since
1990. It was modeled on the New York Review of Books, with short
stories later added to the original mix of book reviews and poetry. The
literature of migrancy, from Iranian authors scattered around the world,
has become an important feature of the journal but has not displaced the
main emphasis on book reviews that cover the most vital and interesting
writing in Persian today, whether published in Iran or abroad.
I asked Majid what excites him most about the work he does. His
answer was the discovery of new or unknown talent. A case in point is
Shahram Rahimian's Dr. Noon Zanesh-ra Bishtar as Mossadeq Dust Darad,
which originally appeared in Germany in a private edition of nine copies
only. Baressi-Ketab published the complete text, which went on to
publication in Tehran last year and then to win the Golshiri second
prize. Works by Sassan Ghahreman, Mahasti Shahrokhi, and Reza Ghassemi
also received their first reviews in Baressi-Ketab before being
recognized with both critical and popular success in Iran. Another
source of pride is the fact that all major universities in the US and
Japan that have Middle Eastern studies programs have subscribed to the
journal since it began publication in the US.
With a bare minimum of advertising and no grant funding,
Baressi-Ketab is a labor of love, supported entirely by subscription and
subscribers' donations, and by Majid's tireless effort. He alone
is
responsible for every step of the journal's production, from editorial
decisions and the nursing of long-term relationships with writers, to
printing, binding, and mailing each issue-though his wife Mahnaz helps
out in many ways. That dedication is matched by his readers' loyalty
and enthusiasm. When I mentioned to my uncle Ahmad that I wanted to
share the gold mine of Baressi-Ketab with readers of iranian.com, he
sent me this email:
"It must have been my older brother who introduced me as a teenager
to the monthly journal Sokhan, and then my wonderful math teacher who
recommended a subscription to Sokhane Elmi. Both were read from cover to
cover with an ardor and excitement that matched talking to a girl or
even thinking of talking to a girl during those formative years. Much
later, during the historical events of late 1970s in Iran, a number of
literary and political publications that featured popular poets,
playwrights and writers followed the trend, creating lasting impressions
and engraved feelings.
"The excitement of opening the package and flipping through the
pages of The Persian Book Review (Baressi-Ketab) is reminiscent of those
feelings of years past. It is definitely the only one that comes in and
is read regularly in this distant land. The hectic life of an
Iranian-American running to keep up with the fast-paced life and its
mundane responsibilities has not yet allowed me to discover better Farsi
literary publications, if such things do exist. It is through the pages
of Baressi-Ketab that I regularly refresh my important memory of the
giants of contemporary Persian literature, read poetry and short stories
of the poets and writers I knew and loved, or of those I never knew but
now have grown fond of. It is my only connection to the Persian
literary language. Baressi-Ketab is solely responsible with my falling
in love with Tony Morrison, and reading all her books, when they
reviewed her work on the occasion of her winning the Nobel prize for
Literature.
"This invaluable 'jong' comes in a few times a year, but
each time it connects me to my emotional and intellectual foundations,
and is
truly a breath of fresh air. The first thing I do when I get it is to
carefully search the list of contributors for beloved and familiar
names. Then over the next week or two, and sometimes month or two as
life exigencies and responsibilities dictate, all the pages are devoured
from cover to cover. Majid Roshangar's work in single-handedly
publishing it ranks alongside the literary works of the giants he
publishes." -- Ahmad Houshmand You can find subscription information and details on the latest
issue of Baressi-Ketab at persianbookreview.com.
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