Meet McMaster’s 2019/20 Writer in Residence

Bilingual poet, fiction writer, essayist and author of seven books in English and Farsi, Nilofar Shidmehr, has been named the 2019/20 Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence.

The program, jointly supported by McMaster’s Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University Library, and the Hamilton Public Library, will enable Shidmehr to work one-on-one with aspiring authors at McMaster and within the Hamilton community.

Please note that Nilofar is working remotely and is unavailable to meet in person at this time, however she will gladly make arrangements to consult or provide feedback on manuscripts via email, Skype, or other means.

To submit your work or to arrange a consultation, email Nilofar at englwir@mcmaster.ca

More about Nilofar Shidmehr:

Born in Tehran, Nilofar Shidmehr is a bilingual poet, fiction writer, essayist, arts-informed scholar, and author of seven books in English and Farsi. Her first poetry book in English, Shirin and Salt Man (Oolichan, 2008), was nominated for a British Columbia Book Prize. Her most recent book, Divided Loyalties (Anansi Press, 2019), is a collection of short stories exploring women’s lives in post‐revolutionary Iran and in diaspora. It has already been well reviewed and promoted by CBC. The Globe and Mail included it in their 2019 list of “46 Books to Keep You Warm This Winter” and Open Canada Website included it in their “Summer Reads 2019: Ten books for globally minded vacationers.” A PhD in cross faculty inquiry in education, Nilofar has been Writer-in-Residence at the City of Richmond, BC, and Regina Public Library. Her writing has been featured in many Canadian and Iranian literary magazines, including Room, The Danforth Review, The New Quarterly, Zaman, and Avaye‐Tabiid (The Voice of Exile).