M. R. Ghanoonparvar, born in 1943 in Isfahan, is a retired professor of Persian and comparative literature at the University of Texas at Austin and is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures responsible for introducing modern Farsi prose to English-speaking audiences. He previously taught at the University of Isfahan as well as at the University of Virginia and the University of Arizona, and has established a prominent position in Iranian studies through influential scholarly works on Iranian literature and culture, including titles such as In a Persian Mirror and Translating the Garden. He is best known, however, as one of the most prolific and influential translators of Farsi literature into English, to the extent that it has been said anyone who teaches or reads modern Persian literature in English is, in some measure, indebted to his work. His translations, some of which have received awards such as the Lois Roth Prize for Literary Translation, together with those of his students, have made a substantial portion of contemporary Farsi literature accessible to English-speaking readers. In addition to his scholarly and translational achievements, he is also known as a generous and supportive mentor, and through his translations of writers such as Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Sadeq Chubak, Simin Daneshvar, Shahrnush Parsipur, and Moniru Ravanipour, he has made a lasting contribution to the global recognition of modern Farsi literature.