Translated by Bryar Bajalan and Shook

Genre: Poetry
 

A Barcode Scanner is the debut poetry collection by Shingali poet and Kashkuler Zêdan Xelef, explores themes of displacement, commodification of the displaced, and dehumanization of the displaced. The poetry is written in a contemporary style that bears the influence of the Êzîdî oral tradition. Translated from Arabic by Kashkul’s Bryar Bajalan and Shook, the collection features a wide cast of characters, including IDP camp managers, UN representatives, and literary figures like Anne Sexton and pornstar Sasha Grey. The poems recount tragic camp fires, text message romances, and the everyday struggles faced by survivors of the Êzîdî genocide by ISIS in 2014. A Barcode Scanner (Kashkul Books 2020/Gato Negro Ediciones 2022) whose title poem was adapted into a poetry film of the same title, by Shook, that received the Award for the Best Film for Tolerance at the 2020 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.