Ala Khaki is author of three poetry books, Return, Remembrances (in English) and Calling the Dawn (in Farsi). His poems have appeared in Iranian and American literary journals and anthologies, including The Book Review, Par (Feather), Worcester Review, The Poets’ Touchstone, the 2010 Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire, Poet Showcase: An Anthology of New Hampshire Poets, and COVID Spring. In 1981, he was the subject of a documentary film titled “Resident Exile” by the celebrated documentary filmmaker and director Ross McElwee.

Remembrances, …, is a poetic window into life inside Iran’s notorious Evin prison, by Ala Khaki, an Iranian-American poet. He was betrayed by a friend for being the author of some of the resistance poetry that used to be distributed underground in universities in Iran. The poems in the book chronicle his time as a political prisoner from arrest in 1976 by the Shah’s feared Secret Police, the SAVAK, subsequent tortures and conviction by a military tribunal, to release in 1977 after fourteen months of captivity.

“I was in an interrogation/torture room in a basement of Evin Prison, my second session within 24 hours of my arrest, eyes blindfolded, mouth full of blood from beatings. I had denied any involvement in opposition activities, refused to sign a prepared confession, or give up any names of any supposed cohorts. The door opened and some people walked in. I recognized Ali’s voice saying, “it’s him”. It was like a ton of crushed ice hit me. Karimi, my interrogator/torturer, sure that this would break my will to resist, slapped me triumphantly and yelled “we know everything you’ve done, you son of bitch, so stop lying to us.” Months later, a newcomer to Evin informed me that Ali was released less than a week after being arrested. ” From the introduction to Remembrances

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Calling the Dawn (Sahar Khaani) is a collection of Farsi poems by Ala Khaki from two distinct periods in his life.  The first period covers 1971 to 1978, the years leading to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, during which he was a student activist, imprisoned twice by the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK; the second time after being betrayed by a friend as the author of some of the resistance poetry that was distributed underground.  The second period is from 1978 to 1992, after he had fled to United States for fear of assassination, tipped off by his father’s second cousin – a major in the Shah’s Air Force with ties to the regime’s security apparatus – that his name was on a death squad list.  The exile would have been short-lived had the new regime been a democratic one rather than a theocratic dictatorship, forcing Ala to continue his struggle for freedom in Iran through his pen in perpetual exile.

The poems belonging to the first period are a reproduction of the surviving poems from his book From Here to Sunrise, all copies of which were confiscated from the publisher and destroyed in 1978.  Friends who had copies of these poems made this reproduction possible since SAVAK had taken away all that he had written during the search of his apartment and his parents’ home.

To purchase Calling the Dawn write to beemonkpress@gmail.com