Marjan Poursharifi

Marjan graduated from the Soureh Art University of Tehran in 1998 with a degree in Graphic Design. Her artistic work has primarily focused on illustrations for children’s books, but she has also showcased her painting on ceramics at exhibitions in Iran and Malaysia, and her poetry has been published in several newspapers, magazines, and two anthologies of Iranian poetry.

She has worked in art education in many forms throughout her life in Iran and for some periods in Germany, Malaysia, and Norway. In 2017, Marjan's educational illustrations were included in a United Nations magazine and poster for refugee children and women tackling issues of sexual abuse.

Marjan’s first poetry book A bird has died, sometimes flies (پرنده ای مرده است ، گاهی پرپر میزند) was published in 2015 when her husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sharing his political views on Facebook. Her poems have been published in newspapers such as Setare Sobh, Shargh, Sayeh, Farhikhtegan and Ettelaat and included in two books of Iranian poetry titled Spring is coming without any excuse (بهار بی بهانه در راه است) (2015) and Three Dots to White (سه نقطه تا سپید) (2016). Marjan’s artistic and educational work centers around the themes of love, women's rights, and freedom of speech.

Due to the issues Marjan explores in her illustrations and poetry, she and her family have been the subject of threats and persecution. In August 2020, she became an ICORN writer in residence in Trondheim, Norway. While in her residency, she has been working on poems for her new poetry collection. These poems are inspired by her life experience and the collection’s tentative title is The bird that is in me ( پرنده ای که در من است in Persian and Fuglen som er i meg in Norwegian).

Marjan is fluent in Farsi and English and conversational in German.