Rooja Mohassessy

Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet. She is a 2022 MacDowell Fellow and a graduate of the Pacific University MFA program in Oregon. Her debut collection, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine, was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elixir Poetry Prize and is due for release by Elixir Press in February, 2023. When Your Sky Runs Into Mine comprises ekphrastic poems that respond to the art of the prominent Iranian painter and sculptor, Bahman Mohassess (1931-2010). The poems address such universal themes as coming of age, sexuality, and the challenges faced by child immigrants displaced as a result of war and political turmoil. Mohassessy' poems and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Florida Review, Poetry Northwest, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.