Something Missing From This World

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A bold anthology of work from young Yezidi poets.

Ten years ago, the Islamic State perpetuated the 73rd genocide of the Yezidi, a culture with long roots in the Kurdish region. In wake of this genocidal violence, a new cohort of poets has emerged in the IDP camps along the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. Eleven of these poets are represented in Something Missing From This World, an anthology that grapples with Yezidi histories, long-preserved in oral tradition, alongside their futures. Co-edited by Zdan Xelef and Shook, two poet/translators who began their collaborations in the Chamishko camp, Something Missing From This World reflects and regenerates the meaning-making of this community, translated from both Arabic and Kurmanji.

Author Bio

Zdan Xelef was born on Shingal Mountain in northern Iraq, in 1995, and arrived with his family to the Chamishko IDP camp in late 2014.Today he is an MFA student at San Francisco State University, and contributes to ingal Lives, an oral history project where he manages a team of Yezidi young people dedicated to collecting and preserving their cultures endangered oral tradition.

Bryar Bajalan is a writer, translator, and filmmaker currently pursuing a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. With Shook, he has co-translated Al-Saddiq Al-Raddis A Friends Kitchen (Poetry Translation Centre, 2023) and Zdan Xelefs A Barcode Scanner (Kashkul Books, 2021/Gato Negro Ediciones, 2022).

Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse is a poet, translator, and assistant professor at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS). Her debut collection Dream State appeared from Unnamed Press in 2024.She serves as the Founding Director of Kashkul and was the Founding Director of the Slemani UNESCO City of Literature. She is a 2022 NEA Fellow, the first ever working from the Kurdish.

Shookis a poet and translator who lives in Northern California. Their recent translations include Al-Saddiq Al-RaddisA Friends Kitchen, cotranslated from Arabic with Bryar Bajalan, Mikeas SnchezHow to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, cotranslated from Zoque and Spanish with Wendy Call, and Conceio LimasNo Gods Live Here, translated from Portuguese. Shooks filmA Barcode Scanner, based on Zdan Xelefs poem by the same name, won the 2020 Best Film for Tolerance Prize at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.