Kurdish novel re-writes rules.

Kanye Pruitt

07 August 2008

A leading author's latest work could mark a new time for Kurdish literature.

The novel may signal the emergence of writers from the control of flesh pressers In a rare deal, writer Bakhtyar Ali has been paid $25000 by a publisher in the Kurdish area of Iraq, who has published 10000 copies of Ghazalnus and the Gardens of Imagination. The charge paid to Ali is bigger than the yearly income of a senior civil servant, whilst the most well liked Iraqi Kurdish paper prints around 12000 copies daily. Its publication could spell the end of "vanity" publishing in the area, when writers pay for their books to be made public from their own pockets. Odyssey Set at the turn of the 21st century in Kurdistan, the novel explores the connection between a rising political select and intellectuals. A bunch of like-minded pals, controlled by a poet, go on an odyssey to find the bodies of 2 lovers snuffed out by the authorities. The plot features elements of fantasy : the poet unearths a land that turns into an infinite garden at night, a grouping of ladies living in a shelter to flee domestic violence weave the planet's largest carpet, and a Hollywood film buff leads a grouping of blind kids on an hypothetical sea journey. Ali is a prolific writer whose works are bestsellers by Kurdish standards Bakhtyar Ali claims the novel ends the subordination of Kurdish writers to the will of officeholders. "Until now, there was harmony between the essence of poetry and the essence of politics in Kurdish literature" Ali asserts. Political control Like elsewhere in the Middle East, print runs in Iraqi Kurdistan have a tendency to be little and writers are poorly-paid, thus the trend of vanity publishing for people who can afford it. Making things more hard, the governing body and political parties own almost all of the publishing homes, which means several books are outlined due to the writers' political connections, instead of on literary merit. Almost all of Ali's work has been printed by the Sulaymaniyah-based Fatih, including his 2005 novel The Town of the White Musicians. He's already in debate with other writers, and is proud to have secured a $20000 deal with renowned Kurdish poet, Sherko Bekas, to make public his complete works. Ironically, Bekas runs a publishing house in Sulaymaniyah bankrolled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.