After a valuable meeting in last January with David Almond in London, we received his kind and supportive words as follows: “It was great to meet you both. Thanks for sending these books. They’re beautiful, and deserve to find an audience in this country. It’s wonderful that you’re bringing stories from your country to ours, and introducing us to these fine writers and artists. Your publishing venture is important – especially when there is so…
Thursday, March 20, is the Persian New Year. They call this day ‘Norouz’ (meaning ‘new day’) and celebrate it as a holiday. For thousands of years, Persians have held a custom of laying ‘Haftsin Spreading’ (a spreading of seven S’s). Seven things whose Persian names start with the sound ‘S’ are put on this spreading along with a goldfish bowl, coloured eggs, and their holy book. Coloured eggs are among the symbols of Norouz. The…
“Tahmineh’s Beautiful Bird,” a story that we are publishing soon, is about ‘chantehs’. Now you’ll probably ask, “What is a chanteh?” A chanteh is a handicraft woven by the Qashqai tribe in Iran. It looks like a handbag, it is hand-woven and the Qashqai carry their small belongings in it. They can both carry it around or hang it off a wall. The women and girls of the tribe use their taste and skill in…