Danaz Xoshnaw is 12 years old and she is one of
the winners of the
Rwanga Book Project 2019, she was able to become one of the
winners of a project on the level of Kurdistan region which had a large number
of participants.
Her father, who is a writer and caricaturist, is
an inspiration to her. Danaz has been writing since she was 8 years old, she
also draws and does handicraft. Other than her family members, nobody else knew
about her talents. However, other than creating beautiful posters at school,
she did not have any real chances to show her talents. Despite this, her
writings and drawings stayed in her notebooks.
When she found out about the Rwanga Book Project
through her father, she wanted to participate and publish her writings, and her
family encouraged her to to do so. Moreover, she decided to participate with
the story of “my white bird”, she wrote this one with the same simplicity of her usual
writings. When she found out that her book was chosen as one of the winners,
she felt extremely happy and she thanked the judges for their trust and belief
in her.
Achieving such an award at a young age is
without a doubt a dream come true. This accomplishment motivated her to write
two other stories, and she is planning to do the drawings for her book “House
of the fishes” by herself.
There’s no doubt that these awards showed her
abilities and talents to the readers, at the same time it increased her self-confidence.
Danaz hopes to become a journalist like her father, to enter into the world of
writing and to introduce Kurdish literature to the world.
