Sleeping in the Courtyard shines a light on works by a group of diverse contemporary Kurdish women and nonbinary writers living in Kurdistan and in diaspora. Featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and graphic work by both emerging and well-established writers, this collection recognizes the complex web of physical and lingual displacement of the Kurdish people. It presents work originally written in English and work translated from Kurdish dialects as well as from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Swedish. A few works in Kurdish dialects appear alongside their translations, both in recognition of the history of linguicide and to push against oppressive attempts to strip away Kurdish language.

This collection showcases variety in representation, point of view, identity, intersectional experience, geographical context, and style. What emerges is the anthesis of erasure. Sleeping in the Courtyard brings together historically isolated writers in community - and invites readers to join around their table to share in their stories, laughter, tears, secrets, memories, and warmth.

About the Author
Holly Mason Badra is a Kurdish-American writer. Her poetry, essays, reviews, and interviews appear in Meridian, The Arkansas International, The Rumpus, CALYX, Circumference, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She is currently the associate director of Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University. She reads for Poetry Daily.


Book Information
ISBN 9781682262733
Author Holly Mason Badra
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Arkansas Press
Publisher University of Arkansas Press
Weight(grams) 454g