Sadegh Hedayat was born in Tehran in 1903 and is considered one of the most important Iranian prose writers of the twentieth century. He is celebrated as the father of modernist Persian literature and is credited with bringing modern Persian literature onto the international scene. Although born into a prominent aristocratic family, Hedayat's writings display an obsession with characters who populate the fringes of society--the base and the marginalized. In 1936, while living in Bombay, he published his most famous work, Blind Owl, as a hand-written volume with original illustrations. Hedayat took his own life in Paris in 1951. Despite his short literary life, Hedayat was a prolific writer and leaves behind a copious body of work.

Sassan Tabatabai was born in Tehran in 1967 and has been living in the United States since 1980. He is a poet, translator, and scholar of medieval Persian literature. He is Master Lecturer in World Languages and Literatures and the Core Curriculum, and Coordinator of the Persian Language Program at Boston University. Tabatabai is the author of Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and His Poetry (Leiden University Press, 2010), Uzunburun: Poems (Pen and Anvil Press, 2011), and Sufi Haiku (Nemi Books, 2021).