Kazem Haideri is an Iranian poet living in Italy whose evocative and often minimalist poetry has significantly enriched Italian literature. His work, recognised with the Eugenio Montale International Poetry Prize, frequently explores the loneliness, displacement, and spiritual searching that accompany forced migration.
Haideri’s poems blend traditional Persian poetic forms with modern European styles, offering a reflective perspective on belonging, identity, and cultural hybridity. While not always explicitly about migration, his poetry conveys the emotions experienced by many migrants: nostalgia, loss, and the search for home.
Through his literary achievements in Italy, Haideri demonstrates how art created by migrants can cross cultural boundaries, foster intercultural dialogue, and contribute to transforming a society’s literary landscape.
It always rains in this country,
Perhaps because I am a foreigner.
We travel at night,
Forgetting that we are blind,
To reach a bare land,
Which needs our voice.
– Kazem Haideri, 1990s
