World Literature Today to Host Persian-themed Puterbaugh Lit Fest

On April 2–3, writer, performance poet, and Rumi translator Haleh Liza Gafori will headline the 2026 Puterbaugh Lit Fest at the University of Oklahoma. The lineup of the festival includes a Persian classical music workshop, book signings and a reception, a conversation event featuring Rumi’s poetry recited and sung in Persian and English, and a roundtable on Iranian literature and culture.

The two-day event will conclude on Friday, April 3 with the Nowruz Persian Music Festival sponsored by the Masala World Music Concert Series with performances by Haleh Liza Gafori, Isabel Castellvi, Hamed Erfani, Roxana Sarrafi, Hossein Khaleghian, Sirvan Manhoobi, Nariman Assadi, and the Oklahoma Chamber Symphony Orchestra, directed by Kaleb Benda.

Co-sponsored by World Literature Today, the OU School of Music’s Masala and Resonance series, the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian & Persian Gulf Studies, the Norman Arts Council, and The Norman Depot, with books provided by Green Feather Book Company, all festival events are free and open to the public. For complete schedule details, visit the Puterbaugh website.

A New York City–born translator, performance artist, writer, and educator of Persian descent, Gafori’s translations of the Persian mystic and sage Rumi have been collected in Gold (2022) and Water (2025), both published by New York Review Books. A 2024 MacDowell Fellow, Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on the books and has presented her work, via performances, lectures, and workshops, at institutions such as Lincoln Center, Stanford University, the Academy of American Poets, and Sarah Lawrence College. Gold has been incorporated in the curricula of universities across the country.

Since 1968, the Puterbaugh Festivals have furthered the educations of thousands of OU students. Hosted by World Literature Today, OU’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, the festivals are a living tribute to J. G. Puterbaugh (1876–1965), an Oklahoma philanthropist, entrepreneur, and civic leader who loved poetry and believed it to be a source of cultural enlightenment and a means for understanding other cultures from around the world. He also believed in learning foreign languages as a primary channel of gaining insight into other cultures. Alene Puterbaugh, on behalf of the Puterbaugh Foundation and in memory of her late husband, endowed the festivals in perpetuity with a donation of $150,000 in 1978.

This project was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Norman Arts Council Hotel Tax Grant Program. For additional information or accommodations, call the World Literature Today offices at 405-325-4531.