If you’re like Brad, you don’t know much about the Kurdish people other than they have been our allies in the Middle East. That’s all getting fixed in today’s episode. Kurdish novelist Ava Homa dropped by the Bunker to talk about her debut novel, Daughters of Smoke and Fire.
But she and Brad also talk about the history of the Kurdish region, Ava’s decision to leave for North America, and how she’s used her writing—she’s the first Kurdish woman to write an English novel—to make good trouble.
About Ava Homa
Ava Homa is a writer, journalist, and activist specializing in women’s issues and Middle Eastern affairs. She holds an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Windsor in Canada.
Her collection of short stories, Echoes from the Other Land, was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and she is the inaugural recipient of the PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship.
She was born and raised in the Kurdistan Province in Iran and now divides her time between Canada and the United States.
Daughters of Smoke and Fire is her debut novel.
