Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Jahan Khajavi

Jahan Khajavi (b. Fresno, 1986) is “the best kind of pervert” (Farid Matuk) who composes “wildly amusing and explicit queer poetry” (Hamish Bowles, Vogue) “with elements of swagger and sex” (Rob McLennan) that “luxuriates in the labor of the real” (PJ Lombardo, Tripwire) and “juggles truly absurd comedy and frank body talk with overwhelming tenderness and genuine corporeal joy” (Louis Fratino, Mousse). Khajavi’s “wickedly amorous debut” (Charlie Stuip, Grotto), Feast of the Ass (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2023), is “one of the most unique books of recent memory” (Johannes Göransson), which “at once flourishes and makes a flourish of classical Persian forms” (Joyelle McSweeney).

Forough Farrokhzad Folio

Summer 2025

Third Epistle

By Jahan Khajavi

Hoopoe, I am writing you from Albany. The birds’round here are those the Ohlone knew. Nearby, that movie The Birdswas filmed. Today’s Thanksgiving & wild turkeys loiter ’roundthe intersections & […]

Forough Farrokhzad Folio

Summer 2025

Second Epistle

By Jahan Khajavi

Once again I’m writing you — oh Hoopoe, darling.This morning’s more than just a little mad & loosedupon me, murmurates. This human me, who pinesfor paradise, believes in nil except each starlingleaves […]

Forough Farrokhzad Folio

Summer 2025

First Epistle

By Jahan Khajavi

Dear Hoopoe, halvah-eyed — take flight & nothing more! You claim to be a poet-priest now; however, your fountain pen lies flat as your sword is wet & sharp.Little Bird — who shares my […]