Haji as Puppet: An Orientalist Burlesque

Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. Winner of the 2016 Tenth Gate Prize. What do you get when you cross political theater with poetry with growing up Iranian-American in Texas? This surprising and unique collection of poems, HAJI AS PUPPET, Roger Sedarat's fourth book shows the genius of full-throated political commentary when its reigning restraints are linguistic skill and uproarious humor.

From the opening act of this provocative literary burlesque, the reader will recognize the startling truths behind this timely and biting satire. Roger Sedarat's commentary about empire, its devious hold over our appetites and narcissisms, over our ignorance and phobias, confronts us with our complicity in our own manipulation, making us uncomfortable and accountable. HAJI AS PUPPET is political theater at its most entertaining, at its most daring. --Rigoberto González

Roger Sedarat has created what I consider one of the greatest masterpieces of the Iranian-American canon. HAJI AS PUPPET is a psychedelic romp through ancient Persian psyche all the way through modern Iranian hellscapes via the American imagination. This piercing Middle Eastern minstrelsy is unapologetically raw in its collisions with race, gender, sexuality, and pop culture. Sedarat truly understands the punk soul of Persian satire, and the way conviviality lives with calamity and pandemonium razes ritual. This is not your baba's Rumi--and thank goodness! --Porochista Khakpour