Athena Farrokhzad (b. 1983, Tehran) is a Swedish poet, playwright, translator and literary critic. Vitsvit, her first book of poetry, debuted in 2013; since then she has published three more poetry volumes. Vitsvit focuses on topics related to revolution, war, migration, racism and how they affect the lives of a family. The book’s English translation, White Blight by Jennifer Hayashida, was longlisted for the 2016 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association. Farrokhzad’s books have been translated into 20 languages and her plays have been staged on many theatres in the Nordic countries. She taught at Biskops-Arnö writing school for many years and is currently the Head of Literature at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern (The House of Culture) in Stockholm and professor of poetry at Linköping University (LiU). Her translations include books by Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Marguerite Duras, Natalie Diaz and Fady Joudah.