Ata Nahai (b. 1960) is Iran’s most famous novelist writing in Kurdish.1 He is one of a very small number of well-known contemporary Kurdish novelists (along with Bakhtiyar Ali and Sherzad Hassan, from Iraqi Kurdistan).2 Having established a new standard for the three generations of writers who have come after him, Nahai is regarded as the most influential writer of fiction in Iranian Kurdistan today. The Persian translation of his last novel, Betting on Halālah’s Fortune (Grawī Bakhtī Halālah, 2007) received the 2020 Mehregan Award, one of the most prestigious literary awards for fiction in Iran. With many works set in Kurdish-majority cultural spaces, Nahai has represented Kurdish life and identity for decades, and has spent the last half century honing this representation of Kurdish life both before and after the Islamic Revolution.3 Given his impact on the representation of Kurdish identity, it is surprising how little work exists on the author and his fiction in English.
