Bachtyar Ali

Bachtyar Ali, is a Kurdish novelist, intellectual, literary critic, essayist, and poet. Ali started out as a poet and essayist, but has established himself as an influential novelist from the mid-1990s. He has published thirteen novels, and several collections of poetry and essays. Born 1966 (age 60 years), Sulaymaniyah, Iraq finished his pre-university education in Slemani. He attended Shaykh Salam Primary School, Azmar Secondary School and Halkawt Preparatory School. He started studying Geology at the University of Sulaimani, and later Salahaddin University in Erbil (Kurdish, Hawler: هەولێر), the current capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Ali speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, German, and has a working knowledge of English.[7]