Kajal Ahmad was born in Kirkuk, Kurdistan, in 1967. A leading poet of her generation, she has published seven collections of poetry in Kurdish (Sorani) and her work has been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, German, French, Persian, Arabic and Turkish. She is fluent in Kurdish and Arabic. Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran, and now lives in London. She has published six collections of poetry and her most recent book, The Meanest Flower, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Her work has been translated into nine languages.