Why an independent writer?

With the establishment of Afsana Press, another of my childhood dreams came true. Just like my dream – in fact, most children’s dream – about living in a tree house.

Publishing has always been my passion, parallel to writing. To some extent, I think that these two activities have always been in my head the same thing. I was only a child when I was writing down stories inspired by cartoons I watched on TV. Then I made little books with them, imitating the few children’s books I had at the time. When I started reading children’s magazines, I imitated them too. I invented stories and used my science lessons and wrote down everything I knew about anything with a pencil, producing magazines with carbon copiers. Then I sold them to my siblings and the children of our neighbours. (See below some examples).

Years later, in Amsterdam, I completed an intensive course about publishing magazines and I became the editor-in-chief of ex Ponto Magazine, which later became an online magazine. (See picture). Then in September 2021, I attended a course on publishing by the University Collage London (UCL).

No-6 of a series children’s stories: Two Squirrels. The logo reads: children’s stories	No-8 of a series children’s stories: The Red Fox. The logo reads: children’s stories	This was a collection of selected articles between 2007 and 2010

In the past, Afsana Press has published two novels in the Kurdish language: The Ocean of the White Coffins by Rizgar Hama Rashid and The Man who was a Tree by Goran Baba Ali.