by Ghazaleh Golbakhsh (Author)
A powerful collection of personal essays on displacement, being different and living between two worlds, told with humor and self-reflection.
Based on Ghazaleh Golbakhsh's experience as an Iranian immigrant growing up in New Zealand, these essays range from a childhood in war-torn Iran, including the trauma of a night spent in prison as a six-year-old, to learning English so she could make friends, to dating in the days of Corona. This is about growing up as a young woman torn between her immigrant roots and her desire to be like everyone else.
The humor is sometimes offset with the more somber reminder of the racism that has always existed in this country, from misguided quips to more serious stories of harassment. The impact of recent world events shows that, more than ever, marginalized voices are needed in our cultural discourse.
Author Biography
Ghazaleh Golbakhsh is an Iranian-New Zealand writer, filmmaker and Fulbright scholar. She has written various short films that have screened internationally including the recent documentary This is Us which centered on Muslim New Zealanders for RNZ and NZ on Air. Ghazaleh's writing has appeared in publications including The Spinoff and Villainesse.
She is currently developing her first feature screenplay with the NZ Film Commission and Miss Conception Films (producer Ainsley Gardiner who produced Boy and The Breaker Uppers) which focuses on two young Iranian women who grew up in the suburbs of Auckland. The screenplay was selected as part of the Aotearoa Writer's Lab 2015 for Script to Screen and was shortlisted twice for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Ghazaleh has an MA in Screen Production from the University of Auckland and studied post-graduate screenwriting and directing at the University of Southern California, where she worked for the Sundance Institute. She is currently undertaking her PhD with creative practice.
Number of Pages: 240
Dimensions: 0.7 x 9.1 x 6 IN
Publication Date: October 01, 2021
