Poet, artist, and playwright Sholeh Wolpé was born in Iran and grew up in the Caribbean and Europe before settling in the United States. She received a MA in radio, television, and film from Northwestern University, as well as a master of health sciences degree from Johns Hopkins University.
 
In a 2005 interview, Wolpé discussed the source of her poetry: “The universe is one long poem. I think some of us just tap into that poem and snatch little pieces of it and translate it into words. Every poem is a translation of this sort.” Wolpé’s concise, unflinching, and often wry free verse explores violence, culture, and gender. “So many of Wolpé's poems deal with the violent situation in the Middle East, yet she is ready to both bravely and playfully refuse to let death be too proud,” observed Joe Benevento in a review of The Scar Saloon (2004) for Green Hills Literary Lantern.
 
Wolpé is the author of several collections of poetry, including The Scar Saloon and Rooftops of Tehran (2008). She translated and edited Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad (2007), as well as the Iran issue of the Atlanta Review in 2010. Wolpé is the associate editor for the Iran section of the forthcoming Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (2010).
 
Her work has been translated into several languages and included in numerous anthologies, such as Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008) and Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves: An Anthology of Asian American Female Poets (2008). Wolpé’s poetry has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize, and in 2005 she received Artists Embassy International’s Peace through the Arts award.
 
Wolpé lives in Los Angeles.