https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena daily 0.75 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1588987668394-BDYCYCEB7GYSQPKLIFPR/PROMO_dena_bc_moo.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/no-war-with-iran-entangled-roots-press monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/d793cb2c-ec4f-4e87-a540-6ce8c3f9b46e/No+War+With+Iran Hybridity in a Binary World - No War With Iran - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/theresilienceofpoppies monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/acedfeff-4d7f-4242-8792-ec2c65725e2b/resilienceofpoppies.png Hybridity in a Binary World - Announcing 'The Resilience of Poppies' - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/n7yds4ff8zrb7tpcb3t7329d56l7rr monthly 0.5 2023-07-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/62737c7e-1125-4277-a610-2551341debeb/Screen+Shot+2023-07-01+at+11.28.42+AM.png Hybridity in a Binary World - New Poem Up at Clarion Alley Mural Project - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/announcing-transgender-sabbatical-blues monthly 0.5 2023-06-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/4898cb57-abb3-407d-91c7-17367a83fa40/transgender-unsplash.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - INTRODUCING THE TRANSGENDER SABBATICAL BLUES - Make it stand out Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/702b5c57-e0db-484c-adc1-5512e5c9c04c/denagraffiti.jpeg Hybridity in a Binary World - INTRODUCING THE TRANSGENDER SABBATICAL BLUES - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/9ffbsk7el3ha5l95pk7p6b8bdaxnz4 monthly 0.5 2023-05-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/9bd217f0-ea33-4c07-8c7b-8b223795b37e/Manifest+Differently+Promo.jpeg Hybridity in a Binary World - Announcing Manifesting Differently! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tb7bmmj4m8germ5j78m3t3sx98z43d monthly 0.5 2021-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1622486197006-2U371UVL0FHHKQ99PVSU/jason-wong-NCb50hjk-pQ-unsplash.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Sometimes Dreams Come True - Make it stand out Photo by Jason Wong from Unsplash https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/dispatchesfromdena-5 monthly 0.5 2021-05-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1621207527880-KA2M13TZOX2R0XPOYHC2/OutWriteBanner.jpeg Hybridity in a Binary World - OutWrite 2021 Chapbook Competition! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/dispatchesfromdena-4 monthly 0.5 2021-05-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1620940724537-K2VGQ7YM7S4AYSO6RPHD/your.png Hybridity in a Binary World - It's a Book! The Scattered Arils Launch Tour - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1620930524641-F92E254AEVM9NLQQU259/Scattered+arils+launch.png Hybridity in a Binary World - It's a Book! The Scattered Arils Launch Tour - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1620930497552-HMGAW25BZO7EIZGQN1W0/IntroReaders.png Hybridity in a Binary World - It's a Book! The Scattered Arils Launch Tour - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1620930455442-L9XWBUF387MG8D83N5J4/readerintrobanner.png Hybridity in a Binary World - It's a Book! The Scattered Arils Launch Tour - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/dispatchesfromdena-3 monthly 0.5 2020-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1588987412911-1MZ1SHR14Q33ITC3R161/annie-spratt-unsplash.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Summer Dispatches Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash [Image Description: Two white curtained windows are above a purple backdropped mural painted on a brick building. The mural says “Everything has beauty. But not everyone can see it” in teal stylized writing.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1598822646364-NA77D94IXIIMY5JJP9L3/m%26cimage.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Summer Dispatches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1598836013619-K6YR4V29Q8NXW2IZFDF2/Colossus+Antho+Cover.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Summer Dispatches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1598839234786-8Z0AZ5GXCNM3FE17U8IW/DSC01531.JPG Hybridity in a Binary World - Summer Dispatches - Follow me! 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There is an abstract tree, with moon and stars just past its branches printed white on the right side of the banner ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1589677917737-2D9LUX6PJAQPKSIXSVWN/CosmosReading5.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Dispatches From Dena - Follow me! Twitter @alightningrod Instagram @alightningrod Facebook @denalightningrod https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/dispatchesfromdena-1 monthly 0.5 2020-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1588988665694-KYANU0UFRLIQQDJTTFQS/PROMOdena_bc_standard.jpg Hybridity in a Binary World - Introducing...Dispatches from Dena! 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Twitter @alightningrod Instagram @alightningrod Facebook @denalightningrod https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/category/Lifestyle monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/press+release monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/may monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/submissions monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/intro monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/reading+events monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/publication+announcement monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/anthology monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/2020 monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/dispatchesfromdena/tag/deadlines monthly 0.5 https://www.denarod.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1618368871886-79RBA7ZK68Q0CA7HTLYK/IMG_8166.JPG Home Photo Credit to Rohan DaCosta https://www.denarod.com/about daily 0.75 2023-06-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1618369055214-T0H63T2MJ0DCV60Z15VA/IMG_8164.JPG About - Dena Rod is In Memory Of Clarion Alley Mural of Iranian poets and activists, Simin Daneshvar, Simin Behbahani, and Forough Farrokhzad by Shaghayegh Cyrous and Keyvan Shovir https://www.denarod.com/writing daily 0.75 2023-06-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1619301595388-GMQZ0LTXOGYZ6IOS9QSJ/BookCove.jpg Writing - Scattered Arils From Milk & Cake Press, Dena Rod’s debut poetry collection Scattered Arils is now in its fourth printing! Titled after the colloquial name for pomegranate seeds, the poems in Scattered Arils excavate familial memory and ancestral inheritance. You can purchase Scattered Arils from Milk & Cake Press, City Lights Bookstore, Green Apple Bookstore, and Eastwind Books of Berkeley. “Dena Rod's debut collection, Scattered Arils, is a tribute to what roots us and what eludes us. Their attention to earthly feeling--the ways we belong to people and countries, to families and the earth, and all the ways we must remake ourselves when the ties are severed--are beautifully evoked. The arils of which they write--small seeds of the glorious and complex pomegranate--are the essence of what's still possible when we feel lost, displaced, misunderstood. Rod's language and the feelings in them are so familiar to so many of us…” -Persis Karim, Director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, Professor, and Poet https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1587333656018-RUTNVF2DOA1SB9XCG3I3/chapbookcover2.jpg Writing - swallow a beginning Dena Rod’s first chapbook debuted on tour with Sister Spit 2020. Rod’s poems interrogate and explore humanity’s connection to the temporal world, while envisioning a radical queer future where national borders dissolve. A slim but potent volume of poetry, there was a limited print run of 100 copies that sold out within a month of printing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1580651770037-ZXL91NSZSBL9XRGBH01K/MSISM.jpg Writing - now in its 2nd printing from University of Texas Press, this collection brings together thirty-two authors, both established and emerging, whose writing captures the diversity of Iranian diasporic experiences. Reflecting on the Iranian American experience over the past forty years and shedding new light on themes of identity, duality, and alienation in twenty-first-century America, the authors present personal narratives of immigration, sexuality, marginalization, marriage, and religion that offer an antidote to the news media’s often superficial portrayals of Iran and the people who have a connection to it. My Shadow Is My Skin illuminates a community that rarely gets to tell its own story. Cover Art by Mina Jafari https://www.denarod.com/contact-them daily 0.75 2018-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1527544972465-ALL6DI7R485BBRVF5VAW/DSC01613.JPG Contact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1527545074379-AFTG7LQI3FVV1MYDSHFV/DSC01613.JPG Contact https://www.denarod.com/readings daily 0.75 2023-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5acec94ecc8fedbe1a9ae225/1580104580759-35HOEMNTRJIBLNIH9FRW/sisterspit1-insta-01-1_orig.jpg Reading - as a performing writer Dena Rod has read their work for a variety of nonprofits, organizations, colleges, and reading series including Mills College We Are The Voices, Root & Rebound, San Francisco State University Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, Elliott Bay Bookstore, LitQuake’s annual LitCrawl, SF LGBT Center, the San Francisco Public Main Library, Radar Productions Show Us Your Spines writing residency, amongst others. Contact them today to curate or read at your next literary event. https://www.denarod.com/read-me daily 0.75 2025-05-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dbbca5e4b090699000a2b6/1408024912028-NID23B61L4HJ0B3VYYKL/image-asset.png Read Me Photography by Julia Robbs