View source for Jan Dost

{{Short description|Syrian-Kurdish writer, born 1965}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Jan Dost
| image            = Jan Dost 2023.jpg
| caption          = Jan Dost in 2023
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1965|03|12|df=yes}}
| occupation       = novelist and literary translator
| notable_works    = ''Safe Corridor'' (novel), Arabic translation of [[Mem and Zin]]
| awards           = Bait Al-Ghasham Dar Arab Translation Prize
| citizenship      = Syria and Germany
| birth_place      = [[Kobanî]], [[Syria]]
| years_active     = 1984-present
| language         = [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]], [[Arabic]]
| genre            = poetry, novels, short stories
}}
'''Jan Dost''', ({{Langx|ar|جان دوست}}; Kurdish: Jan Dost; born 12 March 1965 in [[Kobanî]], [[Syria]]), is a [[Kurds in Syria|Syrian Kurdish]] poet, writer and translator. He has written several novels both in his native [[Kurmanji]] [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]] language and in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. He is known as a prolific Kurdish writer, with several of his novels in the context of the [[Syrian civil war]]. Apart from his own works, Dost has translated Kurdish and [[Persian language|Persian]] works into Arabic, including [[Mem and Zin]], a classical Kurdish love story, written by [[Ahmad Khani]] in the 17th century and considered as the [[national epic]] of the Kurdish people.<ref>van Bruinessen, Martin (2003). "Ehmedî Xanî's Mem û Zîn and its role in the emergence of Kurdish nationalism". In Vali, Abbas (ed.). ''Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism''. Costa Mesa, Cal.: Mazda Publishers. pp. 40–57.</ref>
His literary contributions span various genres, including poetry, novels, and translations. Some of his works have been translated into Italian, Turkish, Persian and Spanish. Since 2000, Dost has lived in exile in Germany, acquiring German citizenship in 2008.
== Life and career ==
Dost was born in 1965 in Kobanî (Ain al-Arab in Arabic), a mostly Kurdish city in northern Syria. From 1985 to 1988 he studied natural sciences in [[Aleppo]], but abandoned his academic education after three years, focusing on literature and writing. He wrote his early epic poem ''Kela Dimdimê (The Citadel of Dimdim)'' in 1984, which was only published in Kurdish in Germany in 1991.
Among other translations, Dost translated his own Kurdish novel ''Mîrname,'' set during the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the 17th century, into Arabic. The work is a fictitious biography of Ahmad Khani (1650-1707), a major Kurdish poet and [[Sufism|Sufi]], who fought "injustice using only a pen and ink."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-09 |title=Kalima publishes Arabic version of Kurdish book |url=https://www.khaleejtimes.com/article/kalima-publishes-arabic-version-of-kurdish-book?_refresh=true |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=www.khaleejtimes.com}}</ref> In February 2024, his novel ''Safe Corridor,'' translated by [[Marilyn Booth]], was awarded the first-ever Bait Al-Ghasham Dar Arab Translation Prize, an international award for the translation of [[Arabic literature]] into English.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2024-02-26 |title=Marilyn Booth’s Translation of Jan Dost’s ‘Safe Corridor’ Wins Inaugural Bait AlGhasham DarArab Translation Prize |url=https://arablit.org/2024/02/26/marilyn-booths-translation-of-jan-dosts-safe-corridor-wins-inaugural-bait-alghasham-dararab-translation-prize/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref> This story takes place during the 2018 [[Operation Olive Branch|Turkish occupation]] of [[Afrin, Syria|Afrin]]. In another novel, ''A Green Bus Leaves Aleppo,'' Dost used the same plot, but told from a different character’s perspective.<ref>Dost, J. & Booth, M., (2022) “From ''Safe Corridor''”, ''Absinthe: World Literature in Translation'' 28. {{Doi|10.3998/absinthe.3344}}</ref>
In a 2022 interview with literary critic Nuha Askar about the relationship of his literary work and Kurdish [[national identity]], Dost said:<ref name=":0">Askar, Nuha. (2022). The Out-of-Flock Dissident: An Interview with Kurdish – Syrian Writer Jan Dost. ''Review of Middle East Studies''. 56(2):403-409. {{doi|10.1017/rms.2023.22}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=I am working on the question of identity, the question of the nation looking for a foothold in the sun of history and a solid spot on the map. I am a writer haunted by the pain of a struggling people; the literature I write is an attempt to participate in their struggle. [...] Kurdish literature, since its inception, has been characterized by “struggle” – defending the national self and enhancing the nation's standing.|title=The Out-of-Flock Dissident: An Interview with Kurdish – Syrian Writer Jan Dost}}
Further, he considered that "the Syrian novel has become essentially a [[war novel]]," with several of his own works dealing with the fighting and destruction in the Kurdish regions of [[Afrin, Syria|Afrin]], Kobani and [[Amuda]]. Asked about his relationship with the Arabic language, he explained that he started writing in this language at a young age and considers it his own language, just as other writers of [[Arabic literature]]. Having grown up with Kurdish as his native language and Arabic through his cultural environment, he considers himself [[Multilingualism|bilingual]], speaking and thinking equally well in both languages.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-02-22 |title=‘If I Hadn’t Written “Kobani,” I Would’ve Lost My Mind’ |url=https://arablit.org/2020/02/22/if-i-hadnt-written-kobani-i-wouldve-lost-my-mind/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref> His own translations of earlier novels written in Arabic into Kurdish are based on his decision to publish all of his literary work in his "marginalized national language".<ref name=":0" />
==Works==
===Novels===
* ''Mijabad''. Kurdish. Diyarbakir 2004
* ''Sê gav û sê darek''. Kurdish. Avesta, Istanbul 2007
* ''Mîrname''. Kurdish. Avesta, Istanbul 2008
* ''Martînê Bextewer''. Kurdish. Avesta, Istanbul 2011
* ''Asheeq the Translator'' (عشيق المترجم) Arabic. Waraq Publishing, Dubai 2013
* ''Blood on the Minaret'' (دم على المئذنة) Arabic. Maqam, Kairo 2013
* ''The Bells of Rome'' (نواقيس روما) Arabic. Dar Al-Saqi, Beirut 2017
* ''Kobani: The Tragedy and the Quarter.'' Kurdish. Dara, Diyarbakir 2017
* ''Safe Corridor'' (ممر آمن) Arabic. Miskiliani, Tunis 2019, English translation 2024
* ''A Green Bus leaving Aleppo'' (باص أخضر يغادر حلب). Arabic. Al Mutawaset, Milano 2019
* ''The manuscript of Petersburg''. (مخطوط بطرسبورغ) Arabic. Miskiliani, Tunis 2020
* ''Cordyceps''. (الكوردي سيبس) Arabic. Damascus. 2020
* ''In the Grip of a Nightmare – Diary of the Corona Siege: Narratives about the Virus.'' (في قبضة الكابوس. يوميات حصار كورونا : مرويات الفيروس) Arabic. Amman 2021
===Translations===
* ''Mem and Zin'' (from Kurdish into Arabic). Damascus 1995. Duhok 2016. Kairo 2016
===Poetry===
* ''Dîwana Jan''. Avesta, Istanbul 2008
* ''Kela Dimdimê''. (''The Citadel of Dimdim)'' Bonn 1991; Istanbul 2008
* ''Sazek ji çavên Kurdistan re '''('''A Song for Kurdistan's Eyes).'' Kurdish. Syria 1996
* ''Poems which the War has Forgotten in the Poet's Pocket''. Arabic. Amman. 2019
== Awards ==
* first prize in a Kurdish short story competition in Syria (1993)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-20 |title=Friday Finds: Jan Dost’s ‘A Pleasant Countenance’ |url=https://arablit.org/2020/03/20/friday-finds-jan-dosts-a-pleasant-countenance/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY |language=en-US}}</ref>
* the Kurdish Galawej Award, a poetry award for [[Kurdish literature]]. (2010)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jan Dost |url=https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/1245/jan-dost/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=banipal.co.uk}}</ref>
* Bait Al-Ghasham Dar Arab Translation Prize for ''Safe Corridor'' (2024)<ref name=":1" />
== Literature ==
* [https://www.iasj.net/iasj/article/280450 Hazha Abbas Ali, Wrya Naji Abdullah (2023). Psychological and Physical Transformation in A Safe Passage in Afrin by Jan Dost. ''Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, Volume 30, 1,8, pp. 183-201'']
* Askar, Nuha. (2022). The Out-of-Flock Dissident: An Interview with Kurdish – Syrian Writer Jan Dost. ''Review of Middle East Studies''. 56(2):403-409. {{doi|10.1017/rms.2023.22}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/absinthe/article/id/3344/ Introduction and excerpt from ''Safe Corridor,'' translated by Marilyn Booth]
* [https://arablit.org/2020/06/01/lock-in-literature-4-poems-by-jan-dost/ Five poems by Jan Dost, translated by his daughter, Mey Dost], at [[ArabLit]]
* [https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/a-pleasant-countenance/ Jan Dost's short story ''A Pleasant Countenance'', translated by Nancy Roberts]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dost, Jan}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1965 births]]
[[Category:Kurdish writers]]
[[Category:Syrian writers]]
[[Category:Kurdish-language writers]]
[[Category:Syrian Kurdish people]]