TEHRAN – Qeisar Aminpur, who is considered as the most influential poet of the post-revolution literature, and Mohammadreza Bairami, the writer of the acclaimed novella “Barren”, are the best poet and best writer of the past 40 years, a poll conducted by the Shahrestan Adab Cultural Institute showed.

The institute asked 50 Iranian literati to vote for their five favorite writers in each category of poetry and story writing on the post-revolution literature.

In the poetry section, Ali Moallem Damghani and Seyyed Hassan Hosseini stood in second and third places. Hossein Monzavi, Ahmad Azizi and Alireza Qazveh received equal votes for the fourth place, and songwriter Mohammad-Ali Bahmani came in fifth.

In the story writing category, Bairami was followed by Mohammadreza Sharafi-Khabushan, the writer of the acclaimed Persian novel “Booklessness”.

The third place was shared by Ahmad Mahmud, Mahmud Dowlatabadi, Zoya Pirzad and Mostafa Mastur. Nader Ebrahim, Reza Amirkhani were among the writers who took fourth place. Bestselling novelist Fariba Vafi is also among those writers who shared the fifth place.

Shahrestan Adab also ran two polls to find the five best works in each of the categories of poetry and story writing.

“The Red Return of the Star” by Ali Moallem Damghani was selected as best poem collection while Mohammadreza Sharafi-Khabushan’s novel “Booklessness” was picked as best story. 

Photo: This combination photo shows poet Qeisar Aminpur (L) and novelist Mohammadreza Bairami.

MMS/YAW