9 Iraqi Kurdish poets

Bachtyar Ali Muhammed, also transcribed as Bakhtyar or Bakhtiyar, is a Kurdish novelist, intellectual, literary critic, essayist, and poet. Ali started out as a poet and essayist, but has established himself as an influential novelist from the mid-1990s. He has published thirteen novels, and several collections of poetry and essays.

Sherko Bekas, was a Kurdish poet. He was born on 2 May 1940 in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan as a son of the Kurdish poet Fayak Bekas.

Yûnis Reuf known as Dildar, was a Kurdish poet and political activist, best known as the author of the Kurdish national anthem.

Haji Qadir Koyi, , was a Kurdish poet. He carried on the nationalistic message of Ahmad Khani in his writings. He wanted to enlighten the people and help them to remedy the problems of illiteracy and backwardness and ideas which result from lack of knowledge and religious fanaticism. He encouraged people instead to turn to science and to the realities of modern society in the struggle to liberate and build an independent Kurdistan. According to him, a Kurd is one who speaks Kurdish. In his time, in the late 19th century, the remaining Kurdish principalities had been overthrown by the Ottoman and Persian states. Koyi attacked the shaikhs and mullahs who did not care for the Kurdish language and the notables who ignored the destinies of their people. Living his last years in cosmopolitan Istanbul, he was familiar with the nationalist struggles and the material advancement of modern nations. He constantly advocated use of the Kurdish language. Although his own medium was poetry, he urged the Kurds to publish magazines and newspapers. Calling on the Kurds, in the 1880s, to unite and form their own independent state, he also urged them to use the modern tools such as newspapers and magazines for mass communication. The first Kurdish newspaper, Kurdistan, was published in Cairo in 1898, a year after Haji Qadir's death. Farangis Ghaderi who has studied his poetry in her PhD dissertation argues that modern Kurdish poetry emerged in the late nineteenth century and with Koyî's poetry. She also argues that Hacî Qadirî Koyî should be considered the architect of Kurdish nationalism.

Mahwi (1830-1906) was one of the most prominent classical Kurdish poets and sufis from Kurdistan of Iraq. He studied in Sablakh and Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. He became a judge in the court of Slemani, in today's Iraq, in 1862, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He travelled to Istanbul and met Abdul-Hamid II in 1883. He established a khaneqah, an Islamic religious school and mosque, in Slemani and named it after an Ottoman emperor. In his poems, he mainly promotes sufism, but also deals with the human condition and existential problems, such as questions about the meaning of life.

Mala Abdul Karim Mudarris or Shaykh Abdul Karim Mudarris (1901–2005) also known as Nami was the contemporary Kurdish poet, writer, translator, Faqih and the Mufti of Iraq. Most of his works are in Kurdish and Arabic and a few of them are in Persian. is known for his numerous literary, historic and religious works like the collection and expounding of the poems of Kurdish poets like Nalî, Mahwi and Mawlawi Tawagozi. He has influenced many Kurdish students and many recent imams and polymaths. Many of his works have not been published. Sir Abdulkarim had written many books and dictionaries such as, which is a dictionary which defines Arabic words in poem in Kurdish. He was the first person to translate the Quran into Kurdish. The Kurdistan governmental region has decided to open a place for his works.

Nalî, also known as Mallah Xidir Ehmed Şawaysî Mîkayalî, was born in Khakoo Khol, a village of Sulaymani province. He was a Kurdish polymath; a poet, linguist, translator and mathematician, who is considered to be one of the greatest Kurdish poets in the Kurdish classical period.

Sheikh Riza Talabani was a celebrated Kurdish poet from Kirkuk, Iraq. Talabani wrote his poetry in Kurdish, Persian, and Arabic. Most of his poetry consists of Satire, Ribaldry, Flyting and creative insults.

Ebdulrehîm Mela Seîd Mawlawi Tawagozi, was a Kurdish poet and sufi. His pen name was Madum or Madumi, but he is also known as Mewlewi Kurd, Mewlewi means wise aged man.