We were delighted to hold the first of our special workshops introducing the poetry of the six poets who’ll be coming to the UK in October to take part in our second World Poets’ Tour.
On 30th April we looked at poetry by Kajal Ahmad from Kurdistan. Her co-translator the poet, Mimi Khalvati gave a fascinating insight into the minute details and decisions that went into her final versions; while the poet and translator, Choman Hardi, who translated Kajal from Kurdish, helped us to understand the historical and literary background to her work.
Kajal is a leading poet in Iraqi Kurdistan. She started writing poetry at the age of nineteen and has since published seven collections of poetry. Her work has been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, German, French, Persian, Arabic and Turkish. She has worked as a journalist and her essays about women’s issues were collected into a book, The Book of Woman, that was published in 1999. She also translates from Arabic.
