Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Watch as Zara Houshmand, the coauthor of artist Monir Farmanfarmaian’s memoir "A Mirror Garden," reads excerpts from the book. Houshmand also shares about collaborating with the artist and their overlapping experiences and memories as young women in Iran.
Zara Houshmand is an Iranian American writer whose work bridges cultural divides and includes poetry, theater, memoir, and literary translation. She was a pioneer in the use of virtual reality as an art form, and her installation, "Beyond Manzanar" (with Tamiko Thiel), has been exhibited worldwide. Her early work in theater led to award-winning translations of Bijan Mofid’s plays, and her own plays have been produced in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She worked with the Mind & Life Institute for two decades on books representing the Dalai Lama’s dialogues with Western scientists. Her collaborative writing includes "A Mirror Garden," coauthored with Monir Farmanfarmaian (Knopf, 2007), and "Running Toward Mystery: The Adventure of an Unconventional Life," with the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi (Random House, 2020). Her most recent book, "Moon and Sun" (2020), is a bilingual Persian and English edition of her translations of Rumi’s Rubaiyat.
Visit the High Museum: high.org
Watch as Zara Houshmand, the coauthor of artist Monir Farmanfarmaian’s memoir "A Mirror Garden," reads excerpts from the book. Houshmand also shares about collaborating with the artist and their overlapping experiences and memories as young women in Iran.
Zara Houshmand is an Iranian American writer whose work bridges cultural divides and includes poetry, theater, memoir, and literary translation. She was a pioneer in the use of virtual reality as an art form, and her installation, "Beyond Manzanar" (with Tamiko Thiel), has been exhibited worldwide. Her early work in theater led to award-winning translations of Bijan Mofid’s plays, and her own plays have been produced in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She worked with the Mind & Life Institute for two decades on books representing the Dalai Lama’s dialogues with Western scientists. Her collaborative writing includes "A Mirror Garden," coauthored with Monir Farmanfarmaian (Knopf, 2007), and "Running Toward Mystery: The Adventure of an Unconventional Life," with the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi (Random House, 2020). Her most recent book, "Moon and Sun" (2020), is a bilingual Persian and English edition of her translations of Rumi’s Rubaiyat.
Visit the High Museum: high.org
