Biography
If you have come this far, then you
already know that my name is Katharina Varzi.
I am a half-German Iranian, born in
1972, and have lived all of my life in
I was always a bookworm, and became
interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy quite early on. This caused a bit of
a problem, because during my childhood (coinciding with the Iran-Iraq war)
there were virtually no sf books and absolutely no fantasy books being
translated. This was what started me on learning English. About the same time I
also decided that I want to become a translator. Because of various reasons
though, for some time my work became restricted to doing business and technical
translations (both written and verbal) for the company I was working for.
In the year 2000 I met Mr. Mehrdad
Tooyserkani – the very first person of my acquaintance who actually shared the
same fanatism towards SF&F that I did. I must acknowledge both his
encouragement, and his determination to introduce me to other SF lovers,
including Mr. Hossein Ebrahimi Elvand, Mr. Ghassa,and Mr. Esma'ilian, three of
our best translators. On Mr. Elvand's urging and support I became a member of The
House of Translation, and translated
and published several book, four of
which were honored with prizes.
During that time – again with Mr.
Elvand’s support and encouragement – I started writing articles mainly aimed to
introduce the field of SF&F into the Iranian literary society. Two of these
articles – An Introduction to Fantasy and “Popular Taste“ – won
notice by the 8th Festival of Children and Juvenile Press.
]
Unfortunately, Mr. Ebrahimi passed
away in 2007 and The House of Translation was closed about the same
time. In 2008 I became a member of the Association
of Children and Juvenile Writers, and together with the above mentioned
colleagues, especially with the support of Mr. Eghbalzadeh, a close friend and
collaborator’s of Mr. Elvand, we have started bi-weekly and weekly meetings
about SF&F literature. We were joined in this effort recently by the
members of the Fantasy Academy.
In the meantime, I have put aside
almost all translation projects, and I’m concentrating on writing original
fantasy fiction. (Tolkien, I am not – just very very hopeful… )
Another thing – having ideas is very
good, but putting them down into a story with a beginning, a middle and an
ending is damn hard! My respect to all writers out there.
At this time, I’m living in
semi-independence with my mother, my brother and his family, and my cat
Raschel.
Thank you for visiting me!
My nephew
Arman & me, Christmas 2009