Nasreen Pejvack was born in Tehran, Iran. Following the revolution of 1979, Pejvack settled briefly in Greece before coming to Canada. She worked as a computer programmer, as a systems analyst, and more recently in the field of psychology. Pejvack lives in Vancouver, BC and writes both poetry and fiction. Some of her works are available in Farsi/Persian.
Pejvack has been focusing on writing since 2014. In addition to writing poems, stories and longform fiction, she writes blog posts and articles that often address social justice issues, environmental concerns and lpeace and demilitarization.
Fiction
Amity: A Novel
Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2016.
PS8631 .E4147 A64 2015
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Amity provides a window to the wreckage caused by wars—the destruction and displacement that leave pain and life-long psychological disorders, here specifically within the contexts of Yugoslavia’s dissolution and Iran’s revolution.
Payvand, an Iranian refugee and activist, still plagued with nightmares, meets a Ragusa, a Yugoslavian refugee whose pockets are loaded with stones as she prepares to walk into the water and end her life, a life that has become intolerable since the loss of those most dear to her.
Payvand listens to Ragusa’s story and Ragusa promises to postpone her suicide at least until she hears Payvand’s story in turn. In a novel that strives to raise awareness about the extent to which elites manipulate nations into wars, with total disregard for the lives of millions like Payvand and Ragusa, it is the warmth of personal relationships and friendships forged that are key to healing.
Awards and Honours
2016 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (finalist)
Fiction
Luyten’s Star: A Sci-Fi Novel
Winnipeg: McNally Robinson Booksellers, 2020.
Synopsis (Adapted from the author’s website)
Luyten’s Star is a utopian novel. It envisions a planet managed by women where there is no need for money or financial abuses. It is a place where there are no power and wealth disparities.
Fiction (Short stories)
Paradise of the Downcasts: A Collection of Short Tales
Winnipeg, MB : McNally Robinson Booksellers, [2018].
Synopsis (From author’s website)
For over thirty years I have experienced all kinds of beautiful interactions with people of all walks of life in this wonderful paradise, Canada. Concurrently, I have heard of and seen injustices that I never expected to witness here in this beautiful country that never really incited any international war. It’s a nation which has a good social safety system, yet one where so many people must turn to food banks regularly. Many have problems with paying for medications, and some die as a result. There are those who cannot attend or complete university because of inadequate support. And so here, the cruel cycles of poverty keep many excluded, just as in many other parts of our planet. To ponder these problems, I present herein a series of independent short tales.
Poetry
Waiting: A Book of Poems
Victoria,BC : Denman Print Works, 2018.
Synopsis (From author’s website)
This collection of poems reflects my life’s learning and experiences from the time I was old enough to know my surroundings; old enough to understand and painfully observe indifferent people and their competitive, egotistically greedy nature. This disposition leads us astray, for instance into pretending uncertainty about climate change, as if scientists haven’t confirmed the effects of pumping greenhouse gases and other chemicals into our air, land and water.
Links
Publisher Inanna Publications
Nasreen Pejvack’s member page at the Writers’ Union of Canada website
Nasreen Pejvack personal website