Michael Zand – författare

'Lion' is a narrative of sorts, but it is necessarily disruptive and disjunctive: ideas and literary structures are questioned, even the fixed boundaries of language itself are challenged. 'Lion' is a meditation on the role of kinship in the development of cultural identity and the importance of rites of passage as cultural artifacts in the modern world. Ultimately, 'lion' is about the impact of the loss of identity amongst the Iranian diaspora, and the creation of myths of origin.

One of five chapbooks published by Shearsman in the summer of 2012, The Wire is a collection of new work by the author of Lion (2010), consisting of the long title sequence and a some shorter poems.

The Messier Objects are a catalogue of astro-nomical bodies discovered and published by Charles Messier in 1771. In this new collection of poems, Michael Zand re-frames these objects as totemic symbols that celebrate the creative and social diversity of the human experience. "The Messier Objects" are thus meditations on the colour and complexity of the universe, and a rejection of a perceived drift towards cultural polarisation, simplification and standardisation.