Woman Life Freedom

Bänoo Zan is a self-exiled poet, librettist, translator, teacher, editor and poetry curator, with numerous published pieces and three books. Songs of Exile was shortlisted for Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Letters to My Father was published in 2017. She uses symbolism, oxymoron and allusions to myth, religion, and culture and has been called a political, metaphysical, and spiritual poet. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Toronto’s most diverse poetry reading and open mic series (inception: 2012). A contract faculty member at Centennial College, she teaches ESL and English to international and domestic students. Bänoo, along with Cy Strom, is the co-editor of the poetry anthology: Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution.

Cy Strom works as an editor. He holds MA and MPhil degrees from Columbia University in early modern European history and has published in academic and other areas. He edits in different genres and sometimes languages, and has had a role in developing professional editorial standards and educational materials. Cy and Iranian-born poet Bänoo Zan are co-editors of the forthcoming poetry anthology Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution (Guernica Editions, 2025).