Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers

Introduction

Introduction For the first time, a critical mass of Iranian American writers is carving out new territory in the genre of fiction. Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers is the first collection of this work. This anthology presents a wide range of voices, from seasoned authors to emerging writers, many of whom are grappling with how to understand and represent a country and culture to which they feel a deep connection. Their mission is complicated by the fact that since the 1979 revolution, Iran has often been singularly vilified in US political discourse and media. Additionally, Iran has itself engaged in undemocratic behavior and human rights abuses against its own citizens that have contributed to its negative image internationally. Perhaps in response to these circumstances, many Iranian American writers feel an even greater urgency to write about Iran and Iranians in insightful and sensitive ways. Iranian Americans first made a major impact on the publishing world in the late 1990s with first-person memoirs, which documented their experiences in the United States and reflected the larger cultural and historical circumstances from which they came. It is perhaps no surprise that as Iranian American writers have come of age, they have branched out into the genre of fiction, allowing their imaginations to delve into thousands of years of Iranian culture, politics, and history. The twenty-eight authors in Tremors take a fresh view of themes such as exile, migration, cultural differences, generational conflicts , and traditional versus modern values. Their writing also addresses both the blessings and the challenges of this complex heritage, which is enhanced and enlivened by their experience as Americans. We see these emerging writers and this writing as the foundation for a new ethnic literature. This collection takes its name from Erika Abrahamian’s novel excerpt “Tremors,” a word that signifies movement, shaking, the moment before a larger-scale happening (including an earthquake), while also denoting something that is quivering, slight but noticeable, yet not fully emerged. Our sense is that the short stories and novel excerpts in this anthology are born and thrive in this seismic moment of change, even while much remains entrenched politically between Iran and the United States. Iran has always been known for its poetic tradition, but far fewer fiction writers have made their way onto the pages of the country’s long literary historical record. We believe the contributions of these Iranian American writers suggest the charting of a new trajectory that pays homage to the past but also draws on new voices, new experiences, new languages, and a new sensibility that finds its most powerful expression in fiction. ix The writers in this collection fall into two groups: those who came here from Iran as children and adults and those who were born or primarily raised in the United States as part of the enormous surge of immigration following the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. In many cases, Iran has figured prominently as part of the imaginative landscape onto which they construct their powerful stories. We have also included stories that only minimally touch on Iranian culture, representing the writers’ freedom to move beyond a singular identity or subject. Many of those writers who left Iran after the revolution have poignantly articulated their experience of exile and their compulsion to write about Iran. Maryam Mortaz, who left Tehran eleven years ago, reveals that she carried with her “tales of my mother, my grandmother, our neighbors, friends, the fruit sellers , the local tailor, and of course our losses and our loves, and the pledges that life often cannot redeem. We are all in one way or another writing our own backgrounds, and we all have a suitcase or two or three, somewhere, beneath our beds or in our chests.” For Farnoosh Moshiri, an exile from Iran who fled after being subjected to persecution by the Islamic Republic, writing holds a particular power to address the wrongs she and others have experienced. Having published four novels in the United States, she employs the tools of fiction to illuminate the experiences she left behind: When I began to write in English, I could not avoid (did not want to avoid) Iranian subjects. Only a year after I came to the United States, the government of Iran, within one week, executed thousands of political prisoners. Some of my friends were among them. The accounts of the barbaric tortures and executions of Khomeini’s regime were all I wanted to write about. I...