Deirdre Eberly Lashgari (April 7, 1941 – August 16, 2014) was an American English literature educator, editor and translator, a specialist in ethnic and world literatures who translated classical and modern Iranian poetry into English.
[1][2] Her pioneering work and leading contributions changed the literary curriculum at Berkeley and other institutes and universities in the United States of America and has normalized the presence of women's voices and writings as part of the syllabus in such departments.
She graduated from Denton High School in 1959 and earned a bachelor's degree in English and French in 1963 from the University of North Texas, a Master of Arts in English in 1965, a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Languages in 1968, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Subjects Literature in 1987, the latter degrees from the University of California, Berkeley[3][1][failed verification] Lashgari was a Fulbright scholar in Iran in 1969 where she studied Western and folk influences on modern Iranian poetry and Iranian women's changing roles in cities and villages.
[1] Lashgari is best known for her edited book Violence, Silence, and Anger: Women's Writing as Transgression (1995), which pays special attention to the works produced by well-known authors such as Harriet Jacobs, Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich and Audre Lord, as well Senegal's Mariama Ba, Lebanon's Etel Adnan, and Jamaica's Sistren Collective.
[7] Her story of collectivist works is written in The Berkeley Literary Women's Revolution: Essays from Marsha's Salon (McFarland 2004).