Poet and artist Ava Koohbor brings us two readers tonight: novelist Shahrnush Parsipur and poet Brian Lucas. Arabeque Optics journeys beyond East and West, where language and form merge into rhythmical patterns of images and words.

Tehran-born writer Shahrnush Parsipur is the author of the novels Sag va Zememstaneh Boland (The Dog and the Long Winter), Majerahayeh Sadeh va Kuchake Ruheh Derakht (Plain and Small Adventures of the Spirit of the Tree), and Touba va Maanayeh Shab (Touba and the Meaning of Night). Her novella Women without Men was made into a film by Shirin Neshat. She has spent time in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political prison on several occasions.

Poet Brian Lucas’s books include Eclipse Babel (Ensemble Editions, 2015), a work of prose poems and drawings; Circles Matter (BlazeVox, 2012); Telepathic Bones (2010, Berkeley Neo-Baroque); and Light House (2006, Meeting Eyes Bindery). His recent exhibitions include Dark Star: Cosmos and Abstraction at Planthouse in New York, Divine Invasions at Krowswork, and Terra Incognita at Art@Archer (both in Oakland). He plays bass in the band Dire Wolves.

Programmer Ava Koohbor is a native Farsi speaker, poet, and visual artist who lives in San Francisco. Her poems have appeared in various publications such as Streetnotes, Amerarcana, Eleven Eleven, and Dusie. Her chapbook Triangle Squared was published by Bootstrap Press. She is currently working on a project with poet Patrick James Dunagan involving translation of the poetry of Hafez into English.