Fariba Vafi, whose excerpt from the novel People from a Previous Life is featured in the anthology Dobro smo. A vi?, answered a few flash questions.
Could you describe yourself in 3 words?
Observant, displaced, fond of humour.
Without summarizing it, what would you say your work in the Anthology is about?
It follows a woman decoding an unfamiliar life while interrogating the past she still carries. Ultimately, it's about the unexpected self that emerges between who she was and who she's becoming.
What does the term "migrant literature" mean to you?
To me, it is the lens through which the lives of those uprooted from their homes become visible and deeply understood. It doesn't just narrate a journey, it holds the specific textures of dislocation that a single national literature, on its own, could never fully account for.
What do you think migrant writers bring to contemporary literature that would otherwise be missing?
They bring fresh narratives, overlooked voices, and alternative ways of surviving and existing in this world. By doing so, they disrupt monolithic perspectives and remind us that reality has far more shades than mainstream narratives allow.
Why do you write?
To emerge and take shape inside language, in order to make up for all that has been lost along the way. For me, writing is, in a way, an act of reclamation.
What's the best and the worst writing advice you've ever been given?
Best: "Don't fall into the trap of a journalistic tone; stories aren't built on clichés and interchangeable words."
Worst: "Aim for the 'big, universal picture.'"
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a short story collection where all the stories take place in migration.
What have you been reading lately?
Lately, I've been reading Total by Nastaran Mokarrami.
Fariba Vafi was born in 1963 in Tabriz, Iran. She began publishing short stories in Iranian literary magazines in the 1980s, and her first collection, In the Depth of the Stage, was published in 1986. Her debut novel, My Bird (2002), has gone through approximately forty editions in Iran and has been translated into more than ten languages. Since then, she has published seven more novels and four short story collections, the most recent being her novel People from a Previous Life (2025). Her books have received several of Iran’s most prestigious literary awards, and her novel Tarlan won the LiBeraturpreis in 2017. From 2020 to 2021, she was a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme. She lives in Berlin.
