“My Father’s Last Meal”—a Kurdish Tale
In the aftermath of his father's death by shrapnel from an Iraqi shell, Dilan Qadir contends with a life intricately shaped by his absence.
Dilan Qadir
Dilan Qadir (he, him) is a Kurdish Canadian writer. He grew up in Darbandikhan in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, and he moved to Canada in 2014 where he sought exile. His writing, in Kurdish and English, has appeared in a number of online and print publications, including Quae Nocent Docent Anthology, The Lonely Whale Memoir Anthology, the Culture Project, WordCityLit, etc. He was the 2023 recipient of the PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship. He currently works as a support worker, teaches English as a second language, and lives in Vancouver, BC, on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) unceded territories.