As İlkyaz, we work to introduce three young writers every issue.We translate these works, which are 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.
***NOTE ON INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATIONS***
Before the COVID pandemic hit, we also worked to translate our young writers works into a third language, by establishing collaborations with PEN centre’s all over the world. 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 have been unable to find more PEN Centre’s to collaborate with. Thus, after ensuring publishing for our writers in 14 countries, able to meet readers in their respective languages, we are moving to explore different avenues of collaboration with PEN’s global network such as joint online events and writing collaborations.
In the meantime, we will continue to work to get the voices of our young writers amplified beyond Turkey by continuing to translate them to English and distribute among PEN networks.
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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 NEW writers under the age of 15 in “15-“, THE archive of stories from everyday lives in “Human Portraits”, and the collaborative work of young writers and artists at “Literature +
This month’s reading recommendations for young writers comes from renown author Ayfer Tunç!
You can also follow our blog on the main page with food for thought content and our collective music playlist on Spotify!
Mehmet Sezgin Sarı / Yitirilmiş Sonbahar – Autumn Lost
You had placed your eyes in a pot to survive
About the author: Mehmet Sezgin SARI, was born in Mersin on 16th February 1992. Originally from Sivas’s town of Şarkışla, Mehmet has been writing poetry since the age of 8. His poems and stories have been published in various magazines as he continues to work as a teacher at a private institution as Turkish Language and Literature teacher. 16 Şubat 1992’de Mersin’de doğdu. Aslen Sivas’ın Şarkışla ilçesi kütüğüne bağlı olan Mehmet Sezgin Sarı, sekiz yaşından beri şiir yazmaktadır. Şiir ve öyküleri çeşitli dergilerde yayımlanan yazar, şimdilerde özel bir eğitim kurumunda Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı öğretmenliği yapmaktadır.
Çağatay Üge – Yazık / Pity
I think about and wonder, what the hell am I working for? Why do I deprive myself of my beautiful sleep? I could sleep for hours, for days. Without getting up, I could complete my whole life on that couch there. When I can rot away by myself, why do I spend myself out there, for others business and endevours: why do I spend myself to bring some people to high places, make them winners and noticable?
About the author: Çağatay Üge was born in Samsun in 1987. He is married and is a father of one. He completed his early education in Samsun/Atakum. He graduated from Zonguldak Karaelmas Üniversitesi in 2008. He worked in various jobs during 2008-2012. He started working at Atakum Municipality since 2012. He met literatüre in Hatay during his military service. Since then, he discovered many aspects of himself and the environment he lives in and managed to create bonds between today and his past. He still continues to do so. He has two unpublished books: Yolcu and Durak. He feels like writing is not a dream to pursue but it’s more of a necessity. He sometimes thinks he doesnt like reading or writing bu he feels like he has to. The writer, like any other person, has expectations from life and thinks of himself and he is guilty, innocent, stranded and free as anyone else. He doesn’t have many expectations except his family’s happiness.
Ezgi Elibol – Ağıt ya da Bir Vazgeçiş /LAMENT OR RENUNCIATION
They say this. They say that.
They love you or they never do.
They bathe in your luminance, drown in your darkness.
They never keep quiet.
About the author: I was born in mersin in 1986. Although I have written my whole life, I could gathre the courage to share my writings when I became 30 years old. Since then I shared my short stories and poems with various magazines. My book Kutlama, about the friendship of two children one Syrian and one Turkish was published in 2019. I currently live in London with my husband and son and work in marketing. I keep writing as much as I can.
