Book Talk: "The Last Pomegranate Tree" by Bachtyar Ali

Bachtyar Ali is one of the most prominent contemporary authors and poets from Başûr (Iraqi Kurdistan). He has written over 40 books of fiction, poetry, and criticism, including 12 novels. Written in Sorani Kurdish, his works have been translated into Kurmanji Kurdish, Persian, Arabic, German, Italian, French, English, and other languages. 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 win that prize. In 2005, the Ministry of Culture of Iraqi Kurdistan chose his 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 Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2014 he was also awarded the newly established Sherko Bekas Literature Prize.

Kareem Abdulrahman is a translator and Kurdish affairs analyst. From 2006 to 2014, he worked as a Kurdish media and political analyst for the BBC, where translation was part of his job. In 2013 he was awarded a place in the British Center for Literary Translation’s prestigious mentorship program. He translated Bachtyar Ali’s I Stared at the Night of the City into English (Periscope, 2016); it was the first Kurdish novel to be translated into English. He is also the co-managing editor at Insight, a political analysis service focusing on Iraq and Kurdish affairs. He lives in London.