Akram Pedramnia | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 February 1969 Iran |
| Occupation | medical doctor, writer, researcher, translator, Joycean scholar and activist |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Citizenship | Iran,Canada |
Akram Pedramnia (Persian: اکرم پدرام نیا) (February 17, 1969) is an Iranian-Canadian writer, translator, Joycean scholar [1], researcher, activist, and medical doctor. She has written, researched, and translated many English novels and political articles. She resides in Canada since 1998 when she had emigrated from Iran.
Biography
editBorn and raised to a working class family in Kashan, Pedramnia studied English Literacy at the University of Tehran. She was admitted then to Iran University of Medical Sciences and graduated as a Physician in 1997. In Canada she obtained a Health Informatics degree from McMaster University.
She is currently writing and translating about a variety of matters, including novels, literature critics, and social issues. Pedramnia has also frequently written for international Iranian newspapers and websites.
Books
editShe is the author of three novels in the Persian language on themes which reveal underlying social issues in Iran.
She has also translated into Persian texts by various authors such as Colm Tóibín, E.L. Doctorow, Joan London (Gilgamesh), Noam Chomsky (Failed States), Richard B. wright (Clara Callan), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender is the night) Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita) and James Joyce (Ulysses). [2][3]
Activism on Censorship
editAkram Pedramnia is best known for her work in challenging and criticizing Iranian censorship opposing freedom of speech and expression of writers and artists. In 2013 she translated Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita in to Persian. The book was published in Afghanistan, another Persian language speaking nation and Iran’s neighbouring county by a Kabul based publisher named Zaryab Publication. Soon after Lolita found its way to the Iranian underground market. In response, the Iranian Minister of cultural and Islamic Guidance declared that Pedramnia’s translation is banned and has been disseminated illegally. The book was later even published in a different format as samizdat inside Iran.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Due to the same argument her recent work, the translation of James Joyce’s Ulysses another forbidden book, has been planned for publication in six volumes by Nogaam Press, a Persian-language publisher based in London, England which aims to publish Persian writing and translation beyond the censorship concerns faced inside the country. The first volume was released on April 2019.[4][5]
An article in the The Globe and mail describes her as “one of the strongest-willed translators active today. Confronting pernicious state-sponsored censorship, watching as dubious publishers eight time zones away put her work into print without permission or payment.”[6]
The Italian newspaper IL FOGLIO writes: "This (Lolita) is my translation sold on the streets of Tehran," says Akram Pedramnia at this week's Boston Globe. "The book is forbidden, but people send me these photographs, hiding their faces, of course. And they publish these images on social platforms, showing smuggling".[7]
Another German language newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung says: “Her translations are distributed as pirated or over the Internet without her earning a cent - but that does not bother Akram Pedramnia. She is even pleased. Thanks to her, Iranian readers can read "Lolita" or "Tender is the Night".[8]
Awards
editScholarship: James Joyce Foundation Zurich 2019
Translation Grant: Literature Ireland for Persian translation of Ulysses
Essays and Lectures
James Joyce Symposium Antwerp 2018 (Lecture)
University College Dublin Summer 2018 (Lecture) James Joyce Foundation Zurich 2019 (Lecture)
James Joyce Symposium Mexico City 2019 (Lecture)
Dublin James Joyce Journal (Essay) 2017
Freie Universität Berlin Bulletin (Essay) 2019
[[Category:Iranian physicians]]
[[Category:Iranian women writers]]
[[Category:Iranian translators]]
[[Category:Iranian literary critics]]
[[Category:Iranian women poets]]
[[Category:Iranian women novelists]]
[[Category:University of Tehran alumni]]
[[Category:People from Kashan]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:All articles with unsourced statements]]
- ^ "Lecture by ZJJF Scholar Akram Pedramnia: "'Not to Change Even a Single Word': Disseminating the Persian Translation of Ulysses Under a System of Censorship"". University of Zurich. Retrieved 09 May 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Lolita Translation". www.thenabokovian.org. Retrieved 09 may 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Lolita Translation in Afghanistan". BBC Persian Service. Retrieved 09 may 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "fourth tehran book fair uncensored moves next to germany after uk france opening". publishingperspectives.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- ^ "Weekly Dispatches from the Front Lines of World Literature". www.asymptotejournal.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
- ^ "Akram Pedramnia in Globe and Mail and Shahrgon" (PDF). peterobriensite. Retrieved 05 April 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "la guerra dell iran alla cultura". peterobriensite. Retrieved 25 feb 2019.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Was der Buchhändler in Teheran offeriert, ist auf den ersten Blick sicher stubenrein. Aber vielleicht zaubert er auf Nachfrage auch einen verbotenen Titel hervor". www.nzz.ch. Retrieved 07 feb 2019.
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