I’m a sensory person. Writing reels me in when it’s rooted in taste, touch, sound, sight, and smell. When writing my contemporary young adult novel, JUST ANOTHER EPIC LOVE POEM, I wanted to deliver to readers the Iranian American cultural experiences of the protagonist, Mitra, through the tastes and smells and textures of her family’s Iranian recipes. In an Iranian household, food isn’t just sustenance–it’s sacred. Meals like ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan take all day to prepare; rice is soaked, rinsed, washed, and rinsed again; vibrant saffron threads are folded into fragrant stews. Hospitality is at the heart of Persian cooking. The Farsi equivalent of bon appetit–nooshe jaan–literally translates to “may your soul be nourished.” In Just Another Epic Love Poem, Iranian food weaves through Mitra’s life as its own character, an entity with which she exists in complex relationship. Ever since her family’s separation, caused by her mother Jaleh’s addiction, Mitra has lost connection to certain dishes she used to share with her mom. Ash-e reshteh, the earthy, herb-infused noodle soup served on Iranian holidays, no longer symbolizes good luck and the possibility of life’s different paths for Mitra; now it serves up grief. As her mother attempts to…