Kurdish Poets

Feqiyê Teyran, is considered one of the great classic Kurdish poets and writers. His real name was Mir Mihemed. He was born in a village called Miks in the Hakkari region of the Ottoman Empire (present-day south-eastern Turkey). In his youth, he went to Cizre (Botan) region (in present-day Şırnak province) to study under the well-known Kurdish poet, Melayê Cizîrî‎.

Rojen Barnas is the pen name of Mehmet Gemici (born 1945), a contemporary Kurdish poet and writer. He was born in the Diyarbakır region in south-eastern Turkey. He became active in Kurdish politics in the 1970s. He has made his home in Sweden since 1981. He started publishing a Kurdish magazine called Tîrêj in the 1970s. He has also published articles in other Kurdish journals such as Hêvî and Nûdem.

Cigerxwîn was a renowned Kurdish author and poet. He is known to be one of the most influential Kurdish writers and poets in the Kurdistan region of the Middle East, and his work has been renewed for the creation of hundreds of songs and played a crucial role in the preservation of Kurdish cultural heritage.

Qedrîcan was a Kurdish poet, writer and translator. He was born in Derik, a small village (present-day Mardin Province, south-eastern Turkey). At a time when schooling was the subject of jokes and when few people studied Qedrîcan's father, known as "Cano" (hence the last name) sent him to school. He was a very successful student, especially in the areas of science and mathematics. Seeing that his son was a successful student Cano decided to send his son to Konya to study at the teachers' college there. During his days as a student there Qedrî Can was blacklisted for cultivating "political strife"; he was made a target for writing poetry in Kurdish and was forced to escape Turkey. At a time after the defeat of the Sheikh Said Rebellion, he escaped to Syria and lived in Damascus until his death in 1972.

Şahinê Bekirê Soreklî is a Kurdish writer, poet, journalist and translator.

Ahmed Arif was a Turkish-Kurdish poet.
His father, Arif Hikmet, is an ethnic Turkmen from Kirkuk, and his mother Sayre is Kurdish. Ahmed Arif studied philosophy at Ankara University. Arif was arrested on political grounds in 1950 and spent time in prison till 1952. Published in various literary journals, his poems were widely read due to their original lyricism and imagery influenced by Anatolian folk cultures. He published only one collection of poetry: Hasretinden Prangalar Eskittim (Fetters Worn Out by Longing/1968) – a volume which has gone through a record number of printings.