Young humor writer and poet Nasim Arab Amiri, 29, has released her third book titled 'Kojaee ke Yadet Bekheyr' (Where Are You Whose Sweet Memories Endure).
Neyestan Publications which has several branches across Iran has published the book.
"The poems are conceptually and structurally coherent… I try to make my books coherent in terms of content, character rendering and form. I have never compiled a collection of diverse poems or humorous pieces just to make a book," Amiri told Fars News Agency about her work.
"There surely are moments when one gets nostalgic. The nostalgia sometimes takes on a humorous tone. If you open your album with photos from 10 years ago, you will perhaps find it funny the way you and your family used to dress up."
"When I started writing my third book, I was absolutely sure that some nostalgic memories would evoke laughter. I knew that by referring to them, I could criticize modern lifestyle which besides its privileges has serious downfalls including cold family ties, shallow friendships and a decline in book readership," she said.
Amiri's pen flows fluently. She is clever in her choice of the theme and subject. Unlike most humorous journalistic works that lose their impact over time and are forgotten, her writings have a charm that could be lasting.
That is why she turns to the subjects not prone to fading away. In her first book 'Dasht Abbas Qoli Khan Pesari' (Abbas Qoli Khan Had a Son), she uses Abbasqoli Khan, a name already famous and deeply carved in the folk memory of Iranians, thanks to poet Iraj Mirza (1874-1926) who composed a number of poems on the raising and education of children, among his writings.
As for her second book, 'Ki Gofteh Bakht-e Kachala Bolandeh' (Who Says the Bald Are Lucky), which showed evidences of literary maturity, she turned to another folkloric protagonist known as Hassan the Bald.
Amiri is a storyteller by nature, seen as a rare characteristic among humorists. This grants uniqueness to her poems, when compared to other humorous works that often ignore form and structure. Born in the city of Shahrood, capital of Shahrood County, Semnan Province, she studied chemistry initially at the university, but quit after six months to take up electrical engineering. She has created a weblog at http://nasimamiri.blogfa.com on which she updates her writings.
