II., from The White Plain by Payam Feili

Payam Feili is an Iranian poet, activist, and writer with eight works published: three collections of poems, Sun Platform, Hasanak, and The White Plain; three novels, Towers and Ponds, I grow green, I bear fruit; Figs, and A planet whose only inhabitants are butterflies; and two collections of short stories, The Purpleness of Purple and The Speech of the Waters. These works are considered a forbidden subject in Iran, but in recent years, and especially outside Iran, they have been welcomed by a Persian-speaking audience. Feili is currently based in Haifa, Israel.

George Reiner is a poet, translator, and writer based in London. His work can be found in Berfrois and Under a Warm Green Linden, and he has contributed texts for project spaces such as South London Gallery, London, ERGO Collective space, Athens, Capela da Boa Viagem, Madeira, and forthcoming texts for Balcony, Lisbon, IKLECTIK, London and CasaPiena, Sicily. His work interrogates animality, hospitality, translation, and sexuality by mythopoetic relationalities and lyrical academica. With Penny Burkett, they have published ‘cruising for lavs’ which explores queer relations and experiences in Polari.