Kurdish literature

Woe to the Conquered: Selim Temo’s Nightlands

Woe to the Conquered: Selim Temo’s Nightlands

Kurdish poetry abounds but rarely appears in English. Jordan Elgrably reviews a bilingual English-Kurdish edition of Selim Temo's...

AUGUST 9, 2024 • By Jordan Elgrably
Wandering and Endless Sorrow: Farhad Pirbal’s The Potato Eaters

Wandering and Endless Sorrow: Farhad Pirbal’s The Potato Eaters

Cory Oldweiler reviews the debut story collection by Farhad Pirbal, one of Kurdistan's iconic writers, now out from...

AUGUST 9, 2024 • By Cory Oldweiler
On the Herculean Task of Translating Joyce’s Ulysses into Kurdish

On the Herculean Task of Translating Joyce’s Ulysses into Kurdish

Kawa Nemir felt he'd been preparing to undertake the translation of James Joyce's masterpiece his whole life...

NOVEMBER 28, 2023 • By Kaya Genç
Kurdish Novel Explores Nightmarish Isolation in Eastern Anatolia

Kurdish Novel Explores Nightmarish Isolation in Eastern Anatolia

Kaya Genç reviews Ebru Ojen's newly translated novel, an exploration of a Kurdish mother grappling with the sacrifices...

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023 • By Kaya Genç
“Sweet Tea”—a classic Kurdish story by Hussein Arif

“Sweet Tea”—a classic Kurdish story by Hussein Arif

In this short story translated from Kurdish for the first time, a young man discovers that his discomfort...

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023 • By Hussein Arif
Bakhtiyar Ali: “The Prisoner and the Plague”

Bakhtiyar Ali: “The Prisoner and the Plague”

From one of the most prominent contemporary authors and poets from Iraqi Kurdistan comes an unforgettable tale of...

JUNE 15, 2022 • By Bakytiyar Ali
Why Resistance Is Foundational to Kurdish Literature

Why Resistance Is Foundational to Kurdish Literature

Kurdish writer Ava Homa on how statelessness, trauma and political exile shaped her novel "Daughters of Smoke and...

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 • By Ava Homa
The Harrowing Life of Kurdish Freedom Activist Kobra Banehi

The Harrowing Life of Kurdish Freedom Activist Kobra Banehi

Excerpted from the anthology Kurdish Women’s Stories (Pluto Press, 2020), by special arrangement with editor Houzan Mahmoud.  ...

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 • By Kobra Banehi
Breathing in a Plague

Breathing in a Plague

Kurdish poet-scholar-translator Selîm Temo thinks of the young Thomas Bernhard and his infant son as he fights for...

NOVEMBER 27, 2020 • By
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