Bachtyar Ali has been awarded the prestigious Nelly Sachs Prize, consisting of 15,000 Euro. The prize has been granted biennially since 1961. Former laureates include Elias Canetti, Nadine Gordimer, Milan Kundera, David Grossman, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, and Marie NDiaye.

Ali’s novel, The Last Pomegranate, translated from Kurdish (Sorani) by Kareem Abdulrahman, is forthcoming from Archipelago Books in 2019.