The Galician festival Alguén que respira! (Someone who breathes!) is an initiative of the Council of Cultural Capital of the Santiago de Compostela City Council to support poetry in all its expressions.

This year, Kurdish poet Hekin Sefkan presented his work in the section A palabra percórreme a pel como beliscos de lume (The word runs through my skin like twists of fire).

Hekim Sefkan’s family emigrated from North Kurdistan, from the region of Mardin to Rojava, where he was born in 1970.

He left the university, where he was studying pedagogy, in his last year of study and moved to Europe, where he actively continued his artistic and literary work. He is also a theater actor and screenwriter,

He participated in the well-known music group Koma Berxwedan and composed dozens of songs for the group and its members.

He wrote for magazines and newspapers and presented and prepared programs on the first Kurdish Television Med TV and the channels that followed it.  So far, some 170 of his poems/songs have been sung by Kurdish singers.

Two books of his poems have been published. The book "Guzek Stran", which consists of his songs and his book of short stories called "Dema ji xwe xeydim", are about to be published.