Malaye Jaziri , (1570-1640) was one of the most famous Kurdish writer, poet and mystic. His pen name was Nîşanî.
Abdulla Goran was a Kurdish poet. He undoubtedly brought about a revolution in Kurdish poetry, and is also called the father of modern Kurdish literature. At this time Kurdish poetry was loaded with hundreds of years of foreign heritage, especially Arabic. Goran cleared his poetry of this influence and gave it a form, rhythm, language and content which was based on Kurdish reality and Kurdish culture, nature and folkloric traditions. The Arabic meter ('urûz), much used in all Muslim Oriental poetry, was exchanged for patterns from old Kurdish folk songs, and the vocabulary was purified of Arabic and other languages.
Sherko Bekas, was a Kurdish poet. He was born on 2 May 1940 in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan as a son of the Kurdish poet Fayak Bekas.
Cigerxwîn or Cegerxwîn was a renowned Kurdish polymath and nationalist. He is known to be one of the most influential Kurdish writers and poets in the Kurdistan region of the Middle East, and his work has been renewed for the creation of hundreds of songs and played a crucial role in the preservation of Kurdish cultural heritage.
Zeynelabidîn Zinar is a Kurdish writer and researcher. He was born in the village of Hedhedk in the district of Beşiri in 1953. He has been one of the main figures in the area of Kurdish folklore. Moreover, he has changed many classical Kurdish texts from Arabic script to the Kurdish Latin-based script. Between 1986 and 2006, he has published around seventy books in the Kurdish language. His main work is a ten volume book on the Kurdish folklore and oral traditions, called Xwençe. It took him twelve years to complete this work, and its twelve volumes were published between 1989-1997 in Sweden.
Haji Qadir Koyi, , was a Kurdish poet. He carried on the nationalistic message of Ahmad Khani in his writings. He wanted to enlighten the people and help them to remedy the problems of illiteracy and backwardness and ideas which result from lack of knowledge and religious fanaticism. He encouraged people instead to turn to science and to the realities of modern society in the struggle to liberate and build an independent Kurdistan. According to him, a Kurd is one who speaks Kurdish. In his time, in the late 19th century, the remaining Kurdish principalities had been overthrown by the Ottoman and Persian states. Koyi attacked the shaikhs and mullahs who did not care for the Kurdish language and the notables who ignored the destinies of their people. Living his last years in cosmopolitan Istanbul, he was familiar with the nationalist struggles and the material advancement of modern nations. He constantly advocated use of the Kurdish language. Although his own medium was poetry, he urged the Kurds to publish magazines and newspapers. Calling on the Kurds, in the 1880s, to unite and form their own independent state, he also urged them to use the modern tools such as newspapers and magazines for mass communication. The first Kurdish newspaper, Kurdistan, was published in Cairo in 1898, a year after Haji Qadir's death. Farangis Ghaderi who has studied his poetry in her PhD dissertation argues that modern Kurdish poetry emerged in the late nineteenth century and with Koyî's poetry. She also argues that Hacî Qadirî Koyî should be considered the architect of Kurdish nationalism.
Firat Cewerî is a Kurdish writer, translator and journalist. He was born in the town of Derik near Mardin in south-eastern Turkey. In the 1980s, he emigrated to Sweden, where he lives now.
Mahabad Qaradaghi or Mehabad Qeredaxî is a Kurdish writer, poet and translator. She was born in Kifri, a town near Kirkuk. Her first collections of poems were published in 1980, and was imprisoned by the Ba'athist regime from 1980 to 1981. In 1993, she emigrated to Sweden. She is currently the adviser of Prime Minister in Women Issues, in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.
Hesenê Metê is a prominent Kurdish writer, novelist and translator. He was born in Erxanî near Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey. He has been living in Sweden since the 1980s. He has translated works by Pushkin and Dostoyevski into Kurdish.
Khalil Duhoki or Xelîl Duhokî is a Kurdish writer, poet. He was born in Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan. He began writing poems in 1970. He has been active in several Kurdish journals, such as Berbang published in Sweden. He is a member of the Swedish Writers Union.
Hussein Khaliqi or Huseyn Xelîqî or Hossein Khalighi or Ḥusayn Khalīqī, is a contemporary Kurdish writer. He was born in Iranian Kurdistan. He studied philosophy, history and sociology in University of Tabriz. He is currently the head of the Kurdish Institute of Stockholm.
Karim Hisami or Kerîmî Hisamî, (1926–2001) was an Iranian-Kurdish writer. He was born in the village of Beyrem near Mahabad. His real name was Karimi Mirza Hamed. Karim Hisami was his pen-name. At early age, he became involved in politics, and was registered as the 18th member of Komeley Jiyanewey Kurd party. He was a member of political bureau of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran until 1984. He lived most of his life in exile. In 1958, he fled to Iraq. In 1960, he moved to Czechoslovakia, where he studied in university. In the 1970s, he was working in Radio Peyk Iran in Bulgaria. He went back to Iran in 1978 after the revolution. In 1985 he moved to Sweden, where he stayed until his death on October 6, 2001. In Sweden, he published a Kurdish journal titled Serdemî Nwê from 1986 to 1990. He was also closely affiliated with the Iraqi Communist Party. He is famous for his memoires, titled Le Bîreweriyekanim. He published eleven volumes of his massive memoires, between 1986 and 2001. This work is an important source for the study of Kurdish political movements in Iran. He has also translated literary works of Maxim Gorky, Ignazio Silone and Nikos Kazantzakis into Kurdish.
Perwîz Cîhanî, is a Kurdish writer and novelist. He was born near Khoy in northwest of Iran. Around 1977–1978, he began writing poems and short stories in Kurdish, and collecting pieces of Kurdish folklore. In 1984, he worked in the Kurdish Radio of Urmia, presenting two cultural programs. During the same period, he was active in the Kurdish journal of Sirwe, where he published several articles. In 1986, due to the content of his radio programs, he was dismissed from his job in radio. He continued working full-time in Sirwe until he was forced to leave Iran and sought refuge in Switzerland as a political asylum in 1995. He has worked with several online Kurdish journals such as Mehname, Avesta and Nûdem.
Fawaz Hussain or Fawaz Husên, is a contemporary Kurdish writer and translator. He was born in northeastern Syria. He pursued his studies in Sorbonne from 1978 to 1992, and received PhD in French language and literature in 1988. He is a member of Swedish Writers' Union and French Writers' Syndicate. In addition to Kurdish, he has written several books in French and has translated works of Albert Camus and Saint–Exupéry into Kurdish.
Reşo Zîlan (1947) is a contemporary Swedish writer, translator and linguist of Kurdish origin. He was born in Turkey and emigrated to Sweden in 1973. He is currently the president of the Language and Literature Department of the Kurdish Institute of Paris.
Têmûrê Xelîl, is a contemporary Yazidi journalist, writer and translator, resident in Sweden.
Nasser Sina is a Kurdish veteran and journalist in Sveriges Radio . He is most known for creating Radio Zayele within SR. Nasser is currently living in Stockholm.
Mustafa Aydogan is a contemporary Kurdish writer and translator. He was born in the district of Kızıltepe in Mardin in southeastern Turkey and relocated to Sweden in 1985. He has translated works of renowned authors such as Jack London, Yaşar Kemal, Aziz Nesin and Orhan Pamuk into Kurdish.
Barbro Gunilla Kristina Brorsson Wolde was a Swedish writer and illustrator.
