Christophe Balaÿ, born in 1949, has been professor of Persian language and literature since 1989 at INALCO (National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations). He holds a doctorate in French literature and a doctorate "ès lettres", specializing in Iranian studies. He has published Aux sources de la nouvelle persane (ADPF, 1983), and La genèse du roman persan moderne (Ifri-Moïn, Téhéran, 1998). He continues a work of translation of works of modern and contemporary Persian prose started with a selection of short stories by Sadegh Hedayat (L’homme qui tua son âme, Phébus 1999), works by Houhang Golchiri (Chronique de l’histoire des mages, Le roi des noir-vêtus, éd. L’Inventaire), a novel by Shahrnoush Parsipour (Femmes sans hommes, éd. Lettres Persanes, 2006, reprint 2012), the complete novel by Zoya Pirzad (five novels and collections of short stories published by Zulma), a novel by Fariba Vafi (Secrets de rue, Paris, éd. Zulma) and recently an unpublished novel in Persian by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Le Colonel, (Paris, ed. Buchet-Chastel, 2012). Christophe Balaÿ translated the poetry of Yadollah Royaï: Et la mort était donc autre chose, Cahiers de Royaumont (in coll.), Ed. Créaphis, 1997; Signatures (Tehran, ed. Caravanes); Versées labiales, Ed. Tarabuste, 2013. He is currently preparing to edit a history of modern Persian prose. He is also author of Manuel de persan and Lectures persanes, published at L'Asiathèque.