Iranian poet Pegah Ahmadi was born in Tehran in 1974. Translator of haiku and of the work of Sylvia Plath, and the author of books on Iranian women’s poetry, Ahmadi published three volumes of her own poetry while in Iran: On the Final G, Cadence, and These Days of Mine Are a Throat. After her critiques of the role of the Islamic religion in the history of cruelty to women and suppression of free expression in Iran drew the wrath of government authorities, Ahmadi’s published works were confiscated, she was banned from further publication, and she was dismissed from her employment. In 2009, following her involvement with the Green Movement demonstrations, she was threatened with imprisonment, and subsequently left Iran with the assistance of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). She was placed as a guest writer in the city-of-refuge site in Frankfurt, Germany. While in Germany, Ahmadi was finally able to publish a fourth poetry book, I Was Not Cold. It had been refused permission for publication in Iran for seven years. Ahmadi was in residence at Brown for the 2011-12 academic year.