Thomas Rain Crowe

Thomas Rain Crowe is an internationally published author, editor, and translator of more than thirty books, including the multi-award-winning nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods (2005); an anthology of contemporary Celtic-language poets titled Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence (1997); a collection of original verse, The Laugharne Poems, written at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales (1997); two volumes of translations of the poetry of the Sufi poet Hafiz—In Wineseller’s Street (Iran Books) and Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved (Shambhala Publications); and The Perfect Work: Poems of Hafiz, a work of poetry and music (Fern Hill Records, 1999). He has been an editor of major literary and cultural journals and anthologies and is the founder and publisher of New Native Press (www.newnativepress.org). He lived in San Francisco during the 1970s, working alongside the people cited in his book Starting from San Francisco: The Baby Beat Generation and the Second San Francisco Renaissance (Third Mind Books, 2018), and was an original member of the group responsible for the resurrection of Beatitude magazine during those years. A longtime resident of the southern Appalachians, he lives in the Tuckasegee watershed within the “Little Canada” community of Jackson County in western North Carolina.

"Thomas Rain Crowe brings the Persian Sufi poet Hafiz (1326–1390) to life in this lively version of his timeless work. A fine addition to the growing number of English translations of his work." —The Bloomsbury Review

"Takes us home to the truths that transcend political factionalism, religious fanaticism, and literary provincialism. . . . Thomas Rain Crowe takes this ancient form and makes it alive with our own language while still retaining the echoes of the old ways embodied in the ghazal." —Parabola

"Hafiz speaks the immortal language of love today through Thomas Rain Crowe." —Shaykh Sherif Baba, head of the Turkish Rifa'i-Marufi Sufi Order of America

"The source, the gravity, and the light that will direct us home is Love. Hafiz is a poet intoxicated by this incredible Love—a wise-drunk man—how rare! Thomas Rain Crowe brings this illuminating poetry to this edge of centuries as we continue to look for love—perfect timing for these songs." —Joy Harjo, author of In Mad Love and War

"This book is an inspiring reflection of the best of what humanity has to give. Congratulations to Thomas Crowe and his Persian muse." —Bobi Jones, Welsh poet and author of Welsh Mysticism