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FRANKFURT. As part of the conference “Literary Multilingualism and Its Didactics II: Poetics, Aesthetics & Pedagogy,” the Institute for Children’s Literature Research at Goethe University invites the public to an evening with acclaimed Kurdish novelist Bachtyar Ali, recipient of the Hilde Domin Prize (2023), the Nelly Sachs Prize (2017), and numerous other literary awards.

“Translating World Literatures: Bachtyar Ali’s Work in Translation”
June 26, 2026, 5:00 p.m.,
Eisenhower Hall, IG-Farben-Building
Goethe University Frankfurt,
Norbert Wollheim-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt.
Moderated by Myriam-Naomi Walburg and Hiwa Asadpour

Born in Sulaimaniya in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Bachtyar Ali has lived in Germany since the mid-1990s and writes exclusively in Sorani Kurdish. Through translations into German and English by translators including Ute Cantera-Lang, Rawezh Salim, and Kareem Abdulrahman, his work has reached an international readership beyond the Kurdish-speaking world. Ali’s novels are celebrated for their lyrical power and imaginative scope. They transform the devastation wrought by dictatorship, displacement, and war into richly layered narrative worlds without diminishing the realities of violence and loss. Through unforgettable characters such as Muzafari Subhdam and Djamshid Khan, his writing explores the human consequences of authoritarian rule while giving voice to resilience, memory, and hope.

The event is sponsored by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action MultiLiLiTrans, the largest European funding initiative for networking in research and science.

Contact
Astrid Henning-Mohr, Research Associate
Institute for Children’s Literature Research
Goethe University Frankfurt
Phone +49 (0)69 798 32983
Email henning-mohr@em.uni-frankfurt.de