The Fourth Flow

It is worth mentioning that among the stories mentioned in this book, we can refer to “I Am Not Looking for Popular Stories,” “Threads of Fate,” “My Story Must Be Heard in My Own Voice,” “With the Feelings of an Exile,” “In My Next Novel, Men Will Definitely Speak Too,” “An Autumn Garden,” and “I Try to Write the Story in My Own Desired Way.” The “Fourth Stream” is a work that discusses and examines the literary achievements of writers known as the fourth generation of Iranian literature, such as Natasha Amiri, Fereshteh Tavangar, Sepideh Shamlou, Mohammad Hassan Shahsavari, Yousef Alikhani, Mohsen Faraji, Mahsa Moheb Ali, and Hassan Mahmoudi, whose collective works entered the publishing market after 1997. The compilers, who are themselves concerned with literary work, have tried to portray a relatively clear image of the state of Iranian literature through the voices of these writers. What is presented to the readers is the result of an effort that began in April 2007. Initially, a list was made of writers who had published their first book after June 1997 and had maintained continuous literary activity. The lack of a list or database in this field caused this stage to take much longer than researchers had anticipated. Subsequently, a book from each writer—which the available sources identified as their best work—was studied and reviewed, resulting in a list of 30 writers. After reviewing all the published works of these authors, ten writers were selected for the first volume, and eventually, two of these writers requested before the book’s publication that their interviews be removed from the book. These interviews and their audio files, however, remain preserved for historical records and may be published or revisited in future years depending on circumstances. This collection was handed over to Negah Publishing in April 2013 after the text of the interviews had been reviewed and revised by the writers.