Henar Press

We're an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit press based in Columbus, Ohio, dedicated to bringing experimental Kurdish writing to the world. Our books span fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from both emerging and established writers from the homeland and diaspora.

Censorship and erasure within Kurdistan and abroad has stifled radical expression for generations. In the face of ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, we believe in the power of literature to resist and reclaim our narrative. As a Kurdish-owned and operated press, we champion historically overlooked and innovative works that complicate the supposed Kurdish question. Our mission is to publish prose and poetry that speaks its own truth free from the colonial gaze. We aim to disentangle Kurdish literature from its reductive portrayal as simply stateless and foster a deeper awareness of its stories, art, and culture.

سانسۆر و سڕینەوە لە ناو کوردستان و لە دەرەوە، دەربڕینی ڕادیکاڵیان بۆ چەندین پشت خنکاندووە. لە بەرامبەر جینۆساید و پاکتاوی نەتەوەیی بەردەوام، ئێمە بڕوامان بە هێزی ئەدەبیات بۆ بەرخۆدان و وەرگرتنی گێڕانەوەکانمان هەیە.وەک چاپەمەنییەک بە خاوەنداری و بەڕێوەبردنی کوردی، ئێمە پشتگیری ئەو بەرهەمە پشتگوێخراو و داهێنەرانانە دەکەین کە وێنەی کلیشەی پرسی کورد تێک‌ئەشکێنن. ئامانجی ئێمە بڵاوکردنەوەی ئەو پەخشان و شێعرانەن کە ڕاستی خۆیان دەرئەبڕن و گیروودەی ڕوانینی کۆڵۆنیاڵیستی نین. ئێمە هەوڵ دەدەین ئەدەبی کوردی لە وێناکردنێکی ساکار وەک تەنها "بێدەوڵەت" رزگار بکەین و پەرە بە هۆشیارییەکی قووڵتر لەسەر چیرۆکەکان، هونەر و کەلتوورەکەی بدەین.

Contribute

Every donation, big or small, makes a difference in our mission to share Kurdish literature with readers everywhere. Since we're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, every dollar you contribute is 100% tax-deductible. Please consider donating to keep us going.

If you're looking for other ways to support our authors, translators, and organization, consider purchasing our books, requesting them at your library, or lending a hand as a volunteer.

Writers are welcome to submit their manuscripts through our contact form. We welcome prose and poetry in any language. If you're interested in reading more Kurdish writing, check out our continuously evolving database of Kurdish literature in English.

People

SeyyedQader Hedayati

Author

SeyyedQader Hedayati (b. 1976, Bukan) is an influential Kurdish novelist and a leading figure among contemporary experimental writers in Kurdish. His fiction, characterized by innovative forms and complex explorations of the Kurdish experience, marks him as a key voice of his literary generation. His novels include The Echo of a Full Stop (2000), The Yoke of Azazel (2012), Gabor (2017), The Grave City (2019), and Bardinah (2022). Hedayati also contributes significantly to Kurdish literary discourse through critical works like Kurdish Prose and the Change of Form and the essay collection Stone on Stone, as well as his translation of Bahram Bayzaie's The Truth and The Wise Man into Kurdish.

Chiya Parvizpur

Translator

Chiya Parvizpur (b. 1989, Sanandaj) is a Kurdish writer and translator working in both Kurdish and English. His work has been published by Transnational London Press, Whisper House Press, Henar Press, and Common Notions. His debut novel, The Smell of Wet Bricks, was published in the UK, while his second, Twenty-Four Seconds of Shehin's Life, received the prestigious Kal Literary Prize in Kurdistan. Parvizpur's fiction employs a unique blend of Kurdish surrealism rooted in political realities he terms 'SoorAl' (Reddish in Kurdish). He has translated significant Kurdish novels into English including Ata Nahai's Birds in a Gale, Dealing Helaleh's Destiny, Seyed Qader Hedayati's Gabor, and Jiyar Jahanfard's The Shadeless Border. A dedicated Tembur player, Parvizpur embeds Kurdish tradition within his creative practice as a vital form of resistance. He is currently writing his third novel.

Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo

Translator

Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo (Huri) is a multilingual writer, translator, and researcher with over two decades of teaching experience across language and literature. Drawing from her background in both Kurdish and English Literature, her literary and academic work centers on themes of identity, hybridity, and displacement. Huri is passionate about fostering cultural exchange through literature and education and is actively engaged in translating contemporary Kurdish literary works into English. Her published translations include Ata Nahai's Birds in a Gale and Seyed Qader Hedayati's Gabor (Common Notions/Henar Press). She holds a second Master’s degree in English and Literacy Studies from the University of Stavanger and is pursuing research on cultural hybridity in migration literature.

Tracy Fuad

Board President

Tracy Fuad's second book of poetry, PORTAL (University of Chicago, 2024) won the 2023 Phoenix Emerging Poets Prize. A 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Fuad's poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Yale Review and The New Republic and have been translated into Kurdish, Turkish, German, and Spanish.

Holly Mason Badra

Board Vice President

Holly Mason Badra received her MFA in Poetry from George Mason University in 2017, where she served as the blog editor for So to Speak: An Intersectional Feminist Journal of Language and Art. Her poems, interviews, and reviews have appeared in various journals, such as: The Northern Virginia Review, The Adroit Journal, The Rumpus, SWWIM Everyday, Circumference Magazine, Rabbit Catastrophe Review, Foothill Poetry Journal, The University of Arizona Poetry Center Blog, Bourgeon Online, Broad Strokes: The National Museum of Women in the Arts Blog, Outlook Springs, Entropy, and CALYX. She received a Bethesda Urban Partnership Poetry Prize selected by E. Ethelbert Miller. As a Kurdish-American poet, she has been a featured reader at annual Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here events and participated in RAWIFest 2021, as well as other events related to Kurdish diaspora writing/writers. She has been a reader at OutWrite (A Celebration of Queer Literature) in D.C. She has extensive experience as an educator, teaching elementary, middle, high school, and college English, Creative Writing, Humanities, and Literature courses. Holly currently lives in Northern Virginia, working as the Associate Director of Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University. She also reads for Poetry Daily.

Chad W. Post

Board Secretary

Chad W. Post is the director of Open Letter Books, a press at the University of Rochester dedicated to publishing contemporary literature from around the world. In addition, he is the managing editor of Three Percent, a blog and review site that promotes literature in translation and is home to the Translation Database, the Best Translated Book Awards, and the Three Percent and Two Month Review podcasts. He is also the author of The Three Percent Problem: Rants and Responses on Publishing, Translation, and the Future of Reading. His articles and book reviews have appeared in a range of publications including The Believer, Publishing Perspectives, the Wall Street Journal culture blog, Bookforum, Rolling Stone, and Quarterly Conversation, among others. In 2018, he received the Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature.

Gary Lovely

Board Treasurer

Gary Lovely is co-owner of the bookstore Two Dollar Radio HQ and the founder of Harpoon Books, an indie publishing company based in Columbus, Ohio. Gary has been working in books for nearly 16 years across 5 bookstores and 2 publishing houses. He has written about books for the New York Times, Literary Hub, Buzzfeed Books, and more. Gary has been a judge for the National Book Awards for Translated Literature, The Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation, & The James Thurber Prize for American Humor. He is the current Vice President of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association.

Shene Mohammed

Board Outreach & Translation Officer

Shene Mohammed is a translator at the Kurdistan Center for Arts and Culture. Shene graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, and is a Literary Translation MFA graduate from the University of Iowa. She has served as a Managing Editor for Exchanges Journal of Literary Translation. Her writing has appeared in Translation Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry, World Literature Today, M—Dash, Modern Poetry in Translation, Balinde, and Chirok.

Aryan Omar Hassan

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Aryan Hassan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Henar Press, a nonprofit organization dedicated to publishing experimental Kurdish writing and maintaining the Kurdish literary database. A former researcher at the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging, the Institute for Population Research, and the Center for Biobehavioral Health, he divides his time between Columbus and Abu Dhabi.

Hannah Fox

Literary Database Archivist

Hannah Fox is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds, UK, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Her research focuses on literary representations of bibliomigrancy and censorship in twenty-first century world literature.

Contact Us