This workshop approached poetry writing and translation as an exploratory practice. Ten writers worked together to workshop the original poems they submitted and then bring them into English, opening up new space for thinking and talking about the poems.

Each session moved between a poem in Kurdish and the same poem in translation. Each writer in the workshop was the translator of another participant’s poem, testing two approaches to poetic practice and examining how meaning, tone, and form held up across the two languages. These conversations led us back to revise the Kurdish originals, from which entirely new translations emerged—not by polishing what had been done before, but by building new English versions from the revised poems. The poems developed in the two languages in parallel. 

Poetry & Translation Week was led by Bryar M. Tahir, poet and editor, and co-foundor of Balinde Poetry, and Shene Mohammed, translator and editor. The sessions took place at the Kashkul–Balinde House, a dedicated space for talks, workshops, and seminars at the Culture Factory in Slemani.

is a poet, editor, and the co-foundor of Balinde Poetry, a publishing house and online platform dedicated to Kurdish and world poetry. He has graduated from the University of Sulaimani, collage of Kurdish Language and Literature. His work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish. He has translated poetry collections by Wadih Sa'adeh, Federico García Lorca, William Carlos Williams, Mahmoud Darwish, and Fadhil Al Azzawi into Kurdish. 

a translator who teaches literary translation. She holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa. She has served as managing editor of Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation. She is the Board Outreach and Translation Officer at Henar Press.