Mr. Mujib Mehrdad, is a poet, playwright, translator, and journalist. He is the author of several poetry collections, including “Gladiators Are Still Dying” (2007), which won the Afghan Civil Society’s literature contest. His other works include “The Fishes Have Fled Our Veins” (2008), “Audience” (2009) and “Soldiers” (2014). His latest poetry collection, “Dolphin’s Alley”, won the Ahmad Shamlu Award for the Best Collection of the Year in Iran in 2021. He has also penned a collection of essays titled, “The Rain Passed”, as well as translated the works of notable writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, Vladimir Mayakovski, and Rabindranath Tagore into Dari. Mr. Mehrdad served as a board member of the prestigious Kashane Nawesendagan (House of Authors) and the Afghanistan Pen Association, where he represented the organization at the 76th Congress of the International Pen Association in Tokyo in 2010. In 2014, he was selected as one of the participants in the prestigious International Writing Program (IWP) in the United States, joining 31 other poets and writers. Previously, from 2010-2011, Mr. Mehrdad worked at TOLO TV as a script writer; from 2011-2021, taught Persian literature at Albironi University; from 2014-2018, served as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan; and, from 2020-2022, held the position of editor-in-chief at Hasht-e-Subh Daily, Afghanistan’s largest newspaper. Mr. Mehrdad holds an MA in English Literature from Punjab University, India (2020) and a BA in Persian Literature from Kabul University (2009). In 2022, he was a visiting scholar at Florida Atlantic University.