Ali Babachahi

Ali Babachahi (; 10 November 1942 – 23 February 2026) was an Iranian poet, writer, researcher, and literary critic.

Babachahi was one of Iran's most prominent postmodern writers and poets, and published over 50 literary works in various forms. From 1989 onward, he was engaged in the compilation of a dictionary of the Persian language at the University Publication Center and also edited the Adineh monthly magazine's poetic column.

Life and work Babachahi was born on 10 November 1942 in Bushehr, the southernmost port city in Iran. A graduate of Persian Literature from Shiraz university, he was a sensational poet in the last three decades of his life. His first book In Unreliability was published in 1968. This veteran poet established his controversial book My Drizzle in 1996, that established him as a pioneer in postmodern Iranian poetry. His essays and commentaries on "The Other Mode of Iranian Poetry" and postmodern literary views show his restless, dynamic mind. His works and interviews have always caused discussion among critics and poets. For ten years Babachahi was the poetry editor for Adineh, and ran a poetry workshop in Tehran.

He published 40 books; half are books of poems, and the other half concern poetry research, review and criticism. He also wrote a narrative verse for youngsters. Several of his poems have been rendered in Arabic, English, Spanish, Swedish, French, and Kurdish. Remarkably, Ali Babachahi developed book by book and his poetic stages are unpredictable, bearing a resemblance in this regard to John Ashbery, the American poet.

Babachahi died on 23 February 2026, at the age of 83.