Dilan
Qadir
Dilan Qadir is a Kurdish-Canadian writer based in Vancouver. Born and raised in Iraqi Kurdistan, he has been living in Canada since 2014. Qadir’s work spans poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, with publications in Wax Poetry and Art, Quae Nocent Docent Anthology, The Lonely Whale Memoir Anthology, The Culture Project, Spry Literary Journal, The Markaz Review, WordCity Literary Journal, and The Fiddlehead. His poetry was longlisted for the Vera Manuel Award for Poetry in 2022 and in 2023, he was awarded the PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship.
Program History
Citation
“In these fraught times, it’s a marvel to discover and engage with voices like Dilan Qadir. His writing, which spans many worlds, could easily have turned to other directions; instead, it is infused with a layered compassion for the places he has left behind, and a genuine curiosity about his more recent experiences. Qadir’s keen observational eye, his ability to blend humour and trauma, his understanding of the historical forces that shape our world, and the authenticity of his writing all evoke admiration. He is a writer to watch and if he continues on his current path, I suspect his writing will be immeasurably useful to anyone interested in dislocation and the reassembling of identities. I look forward to working with him.”—2025 WT Rising Stars selector Rabindranath Maharaj