Kurdistan +100: Stories from a Future State by Orsola Casagrande and Mustafa Gündoğdu

Kurdistan +100 poses a question to thirteen contemporary Kurdish writers: might the Kurds have a country to call their own by the year 2046--exactly a century after the last glimmer of independence (the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad)? Or might the struggle for independence have taken new turns and new forms?

Throughout the twentieth century (and so far in the twenty-first), the Kurds have been betrayed, suppressed, stripped of their basic rights (from citizenship to the freedom to speak their own language) and had their political aspirations crushed at every turn.

In this groundbreaking anthology, Kurdish authors (including several former political prisoners, and one currently serving a 183-year sentence for his views) imagine a freer future, one in which it is no longer effectively illegal to be a Kurd. From future eco-activism, to drone warfare, to the resuscitation of victims of past massacres, these stories explore different sides of the present struggle through the metaphor of futurism to dazzling effect.

Featuring Qadir Agid, Yıldız Çakar, Selahattin Demirtaş, Ömer Dilsoz, Muharrem Erbey, Nariman Evdike, Ava Homa, Hüseyin Karabey, Karzan Kardozi, Sema Kaygusuz, Jahangir Mahmoudveysi, Meral Şimşek, and Jîl Şwanî.

Translated by Amy Spangler, Nicholas Glastonbury, Andrew Penny, Mustafa Gundogdu, Rojin Hamo, Khazan Jangiz, Harriet Paintin, Darya Najim, Dibar Çelik, and Kate Ferguson.

Orsola Casagrande is a Venetian journalist, film-maker and curator. She worked for 25 years for the Italian daily newspaper il manifesto, and is co-editor of the web magazine Global Rights. Currently based in the Basque country, Orsola writes regularly on Kurdish, Turkish and Basque politics and culture for the Basque daily paper Berria, among others. She has translated numerous books, as well as written her own.

Mustafa Gündoğdu was born in the city of Dersim, and is currently based in London. He has worked as a coordinator for various human rights and conflict resolution NGOs over 20 years, where his roles included in-house translator (working on over 100 books and articles).