Rereading the Ten Nights

Stanford Iranian Studies Program

Dr. Mandana Zandian lectured at Stanford on March 5, 2020. In October 1977, the German-Iranian Cultural Association in Tehran hosted ten nights of literature reading sessions, organized by the Iranian Writers Association. This series of literature readings, performed by 60 writers, is considered as an early manifestation of a public expression of political protest against the Pahlavi regime. Rereading the Ten Nights is a collection of interviews with some of the writers who attended the event, 36 years later. Mandana Zandian is a graduate of Shahid Beheshti Medical School in 1997. She works at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and is currently engaged in research on aggressive types of advanced cancers. Dr. Zandian, also a published poet, author, and journalist, serves on the editorial board of the Rahavard quarterly journal and collaborates with Homa Sarshar in her weekly Radio Programs. A selection of Zandian’s love poems is translated into English by Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak as An Eyeful of Earth, An Eyeful of Ocean, Los Angeles, 2014. Her books include: “Omid o Azadi” (Hope and Freedom), on the life and works of Iraj Gorgin, Los Angeles, 2012; “Baz-khani-e Dah-Shab” (The Ten-Nights Revisited), Los Angeles, 2014; and her latest book titled Ehsan Yar Shater: an Interview with Mandana Zandian, Los Angeles, 2016. Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.