İlkyaz’s new works are now live and can be found below and throughout the postings on the English homepage!
As İlkyaz, we work to introduce three young writers every month. We translate these works, which are be made up of a short stories or poems, into English and endeavour to introduce them to readers outside of Turkey. This exchange, we hope, will create new audiences for our writers in the world arena and introduce them to a global network of the world’s literary figures.
In December, we initiated this effort with Norwegian PEN‘s lead. After PEN Germany, PEN Belgium/Flanders continued the very same role for the month of February. For March, PEN French Centre took over the role of promoting our young writers abroad. For the writings of April, we collaborated with PEN South Africa. For May, Scottish PEN took over the role of amplifying our young writers voices within their membership and audience, and PEN Catalan promoted our writers for June to their own members and audience. For July our partnership reached out to Russia, in collaboration with PEN Moscow Centre! August followed with a collaboration with PEN Canada, September with PEN Venezuela, October with Croatian PEN, and November with PEN Wales/Cymru.For our December writings our partner was Danish PEN,for the month of January it was Belarusian PEN.
We apologise that due to the global effect coronavirus outbreak we were unable to find a PEN Centre to collaborate with this month. We will keep searching however so check back soon for more updates.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read, you can reach the last issue’s writings here.
Don’t forget to check out our writers under the age of 15, in “15-“, our archive of stories from everyday lives in “Human Portraits”, the collaborative work of young poet Suhan Lalettayin and painter Zeynep Mar at “Literature +” and renown writer’s reading suggestions to young writers!
This month’s reading recommendations for young writers comes from award winning Turkish writer Pelin Buzluk!
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Rıdvan Yıldız – Boşluğun Gözleri / The Eyes of Emptiness
I know that freedom is growing
As the best comrade of loneliness in town squares
I exchange grizzly hairs for time
Now everything strains differently
About the author: Born in Sivas Doğanşar in 1989. Graduated from Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Social Sciences Tutoring in 2010. Graduated from Anadolu University Sociology Department in 2018. He is currently working as a teacher in Istanbul and continuing his further education in the field of History in İstanbul Ayvansaray University. Rıdvan Yıldız has a wholesome sense of love for nature and animals and the commotion of the city is a sickness he can’t get rid of. He continues to write poems and essays for Lavinyadergi.com every Monday
Published Poetry Books:
-Derdine Düştüm (2019)
-Üzerinden İşgal Geçen Sözler (2020)
Hatice Hamarat- Mahkeme/ The Courtroom
Children must have discovered
This shape called loneliness, before he adults
Because they bathe in their emotions to think
Big fellow Cevat, turned into a child in front of the courtroom.
The judge lapsed the time by leaving broken pieces of rocks in his eyes
“You are guilty for your loneliness”
About the author: Biographical information not preferred.
Furkan Pişkin- Kısık Sesle Konuşulacak Şeyler / Thıngs to talk about ın a quiet voıce
Summer is coming. We sleep on the housetop with my brother every night. My brother’s hands are gigantic, as well as his pockets. That’s why he is the one to sneak out nuts from mother’s fort. We get to the housetop with two pockets full of nuts. As we climb up the black marble stairs each night, I am left behind. I am afraid of the dark, but I don’t show my fear. Real men aren’t afraid, I trust my brother. As the sun sets, we play with the last set of clouds in the sky. Our game is called, What the cloud has to say? My brother gives a start. His hand pointed to the sky. “Look there are two clouds side by side, did you see? They are quite big, look at the side it’s like a dog’s head. These are the dogs of the neighbour street.”
About the author: Born in 1996 in İzmir. His stories have been published by Öykü Gazetesi, Sancı Kültür Sanat Dergisi, Yeni e dergisi, Lacivert öykü ve şiir Dergisi among others. He was awarded second place in the 2017 Cumba Kültür Sanat Derneği Short Story Competition. He was a part of the 2018 “Her Hastalık Bir Hikayedir” compilation. He writes and seems he will keep doing so.
