Kurdish literature

Burhan Sonmez is an award winning Kurdish novelist and lawyer from Turkey. He was re-elected President of PEN International on the 27th of September 2024, during PEN International’s Annual Congress. 

www.pen-international.org/who-we-are 

Bakhtyar Ali is one of the most prominent contemporary intellectuals from Iraqi Kurdistan. His novels have been translated into Persian, Arabic, Turkish, German, Italian, French and English, a renown very few authors writing in the Kurdish language enjoy. He has written nearly 40 books, including 12 novels, as well as a number of essay books and collections of poetry. In 2017, he was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize in Germany, joining past recipients such as Milan Kundera, Margaret Atwood and Javier Marías. He is the first author writing in a non-European language to do so. In March 2024 he was honored with the prestigious German award Hilde Domin Prize for literature in exile. He lives in Cologne, Germany.

Bachtyar Ali was nominated by the Department of Comparative Literature, with additional support from the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

Bachtyar Ali (also spelt Bakhtiyar Ali) is one of the most prominent contemporary authors and poets from Iraqi Kurdistan. He has written over 40 books of fiction, poetry, and criticism, including 12 novels, and has been translated into Kurmanji Kurdish, Persian, Arabic, German, Italian, French, English, and other languages, a renown very few authors writing in the Kurdish language enjoy. In 2017, he was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize, joining past recipients such as Milan Kundera, Margaret Atwood and Javier Marías. He is the first author writing in a non-European language to do so. In 2005, the Ministry of Culture of Iraqi Kurdistan elected the novel Shari Mosiqare Spiyekan (The City of the Musicians in White) as the best book of the year. In 2009, Ali received the first HARDI Literature Prize, part of the largest cultural festival in the Kurdish part of Iraq. In 2014, he was also awarded the newly established Sherko Bekas Literature Prize.

Ali was born in 1966 in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. In 1983, he was injured during student protests against Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, and he abruptly ended his studies in geology. He devoted himself to poetry instead and received that same year his first prize, for his poem "Nishtiman" (“Homeland”). After the revolt of 1991, writers and intellectuals in the Kurdish region of Iraq experienced a surge of creative autonomy. Ali intensified his own artistic activity and devoted himself simultaneously to the philosophical magazine, Azadi (Freedom). His first collection of poetry, Gunah w Karnaval (Sin and Carnival) appeared in 1992. Recent novels include Dagirkirdini Tariki (Conquering Darkness) and the trilogy Kashti Frishtakan (The Angels' Ship). In his criticism, he is well known for employing Western philosophical concepts to interpret an issue in Kurdish society, modifying or adapting them to the context. His novels similarly synthesize literary traditions, drawing from contemporary Kurdish events as well as fantastical elements. In Kurdistan, he is celebrated for his non-partisanship and open criticism toward the political and social relationships in his homeland.

Only one of Ali's novels has so far been translated into English, I Stared at the Night of the City (published originally as Ghazalnus w Baghakani Khayal, or Ghazalnus and the Gardens of Imagination). It was published in 2016 by Periscope, an imprint of Garnet Publishing. It was also translated by Kareem Abdulrahman and is the first Kurdish novel to be translated into English. Bachtyar Ali has lived in Cologne since 1998.