Haus für Poesie

Zeynep Altıok Akatlı (born 1968, Ankara, Turkey) studied Social Anthropology at Istanbul University. After graduation, she worked for many years in advertising, and has worked as a Communication Consultant for politicians and artists since 2013. Alongside this career, Altıok Akatlı holds the position of Acting Party Chairperson for Culture and Art for the Republican People's Party (CHP). Zeynep Altıok is primarily engaged with projects that support the cultural and artistic activities of women.

In 1993, her father Metin Altıok was killed in the Sivas Massacre. To prevent this event from falling into oblivion, she has written numerous crticial texts about the attempts to cover it up by the Turkish government. In 2011, these articles were published in the collection “Yıldız İzi” (Star Trail). In commemoration of Metin Altıok, her first collection of poems, “Gölgesi Yıldız Dolu” (The Shadow is Full of Stars), was published in 2013. In her book she describes the Metin Altıok she knew as a father, and the traces of the massacre in her life.

Since 2009 Altıok has been a member of the “Toplumsal Bellek Platformu” (Social Memory Platform), “Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi Yönetim” (Women's Library Board), “Ülke Politikaları Vakfı Yönetim” (Country Policy Foundation Board) und “Nazım Hikmet Vakfı Yönetim“ (Nazım Hikmet Foundation Board).

Altıok has also become active as an editor, editing the anthologies “Bir Acıya Kiracı” (Tenants of Pain) and “Şiirin İlk atlası” (Poem's First Atlas) by Metin Altıok, Füsun Akatlı's “Kırmızı Gagalı Pelikan” (Red-beaked Pelicans) and  Nesteren Davutoğlu's travel sketches “Gezi günlükleri - Afrika, Balkanlar ve Norveç”.

Publications

Yıldız İzi (Star Trail)
Zeynep’e Mektuplar (Letters to Zeynep)
Gölgesi Yıldız Dolu (The Shadow is Full of Stars)

For Mehmet Altun (born 1977, Kars, Turkey) “the East” is the land of divine creation. It is a region whose historical and traditional roots run deep, an archive that forms a unity out of beliefs and civilisation. He writes above all about the lives of the people in East Anatolia. Altun writes in Kurdish and Turkish.

In 2005 Altun founded the literary magazine “Üç Nokta” (Three Points) with two friends, and was for a while its chief editor. His columns and articles on current issues were published in the critical newspapers “Sabah Gazetesi”, “BirGün Gazetesi” and “Taraf Gazetesi”.

Altun studied Literary Studies, Archeology and Art History and works for the Institute of Social Sciences at İstanbul University. Since 1998 he has worked as a journalist and as an editor in a publishing house. He writes literary reviews for the daily paper “Akşam” and cultural and political essays for the daily paper “Birgün“. In 2004 Mehmet Altun received the “Yaşar Nabi Nayır Şiir Mansiyonu“ Prize, in 2012 the “Ahmet Necdet Şiir” Prize and in 2013 he was awarded the Prize “Comune di Ostana – La Lingua Madre”, an international Prize for native-language poetry.

Publications (selected)

Rüyamda Hayat Vardı, Babil Yayınları 2004
Su Zılgıtları, Babil Yayınları 2008
Yukarı Deniz, Babil Yayınları 2008
Lapis Lazuli, Babil Yayınları 2011

Onur Behramoğlu's (*1975, İstanbul) first collection "Asit ya da İksir" (Acid or Elixir) came out in September 2006 (second edition: March 2013) as the first poetry book of "Yitik Ülke" (Lost Land) Publishing House. His second poetry collection "Senden Öğrendiğim Şarkılar" (The Songs I Learned From You) is published in April 2013. He is a monthly columnist at ‘Şalom’ (Shalom) newspaper and ‘Remzi Kitap Gazetesi’ (Remzi Book Newspaper). He is writing articles at 'Aykırı Akademi' (www.aykiriakademi.com), teaching 'Music of Poetry' at Gümüşlük Academy (www.gumuslukakademisi.org) and 'Interdisciplinary Poetry' at Utopia Schools (www.utopyaokullari.com)  

Behramoğlu was attending to several poetry and translation festivals in Turkey. He represented Turkish poetry at Moscow International Poetry Festival in 2010, participated to poetry workshop of Helicon-Society for Advancement of Poetry in Israel in September 2012, attended to 10th International Writers’ Meeting in Sofia for the 100th anniversary celebration of the Union of the Bulgarian Writers in September 2013, attended to Sha'ar 13th International Poetry Festival in Israel in November 2013. He has translated some poems of Ewa Lipska, Yehuda Amihay, Marin Sorescu, Gregory Corso and young Israeli poets. He was contributing to different books as co-writer and is member of Pen and Word Express project of Literature Across Frontiers.
Some of his poems have been translated to English, German, Russian, Hebrew, Bulgarian and Azerbaijani.

Behramoğlu's synthesis of imagist and narrative poetry is regarded as an original  attempt in modern Turkish poetry. His revolutionary interpretation of religious themes which are generally regarded within the sphere of conservative view is strikingly remarkable. The integral structure of his poems resembles the form of a musical composition full of mind-blowing ideas, themes and interrelations.

He does not apply for any poetry awards since he believes poetry is rebellion, not literature.

Publications

Asit ya da İksir, Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2006
Senden Öğrendiğim Şarkılar, Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2013

Gökçenur Ç. (born 1971, Istanbul, Turkey) is one of the most striking poetic voices of young contemporary Turkish poetry. “His rich poetic work is a flickering border-crossing form between lyrics, prose poem and pamphlet. He wins the reader over through an original tone that is just as subtle as it is ironic, and lifts the everyday out of its sockets with wonderful hooks.” (Lyrikoase-duekkan-münchen.de)

Since 1990 his poems have been published in numerous literary magazines and have since then been translated into many languages. As well as this, he has translated Wallace Stevens, Paul Auster and an anthology of modern Japanese haikus into Turkish. He is currently working on an anthology of American poetry.

Gökçenur Ç. is the driving force and codirector of Word-Express, and a board member of the Delta International Cultural Interactions. He lives in Istanbul, where he works as an engineer. He actively participated in the Gezi Park protests and is a member of an opposition group.

Publications (selected)

Her Kitabın El Kitabı (Handbook for every Book), Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2006
Söze Mezar (Word-Grab), Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2010
Sırtında Bunca Sözcükle (All the words on the Back), Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2012
Doğanın Ölümü (The Death of Nature), Yitik Ülke Yayınları 2014

Kaan Koç (born 1986, Istanbul, Turkey) scrutinises the dissonance between society, state and God, and attempts to fathom the suppressed nature of humanity. His poems are profound, ecstatic and complex and have great poetic strength. Koç studied International Relations at Kocaeli University and is a columnist for the newspaper “Karsı Gasetezi”. He is the editor and author of numerous literary and poetry magazines and also well known as a screenwriter.

Publications

Çok Tanrılı Sular (The Water of Polytheism), Yasakmeyve/Komşu Yayınları 2007

The Istanbul-based actor Barış Atay Mengüllü (born 1981, Wilhelmshaven) is a prominent representative and co-organiser of the Gezi Park demonstrations. On November 22^nd 2013 he was arrested by the police due to the “Redhack” file, and held in custody for three days. “Redhack” is a group of young hackers that publicised cases of corruption within the Turkish government. Among other actions, they temporarily crippled the internet sites of 350 police departments. Mengüllü appears regularly on television programs, news broadcasts and political discussions in relation to the protests.

Mengüllü broke off a biology degree to study acting at Yeditepe University. Mengüllü has acted in a range of Turkish TV series such as “Haci” (Pilgrim) and “Şöhret” (Fame) and had supporting roles in the films “Kavuk” (Turbans) and “Zincirbozan“. His breakthrough came with the role “Saffet” in the series “Arka Sıradakiler“ (Back Row).

Onur Orhan (born 1975, Istanbul, Turkey) works as a business consultant and writer in Istanbul. After breaking off his studies in Legal Studies, he studied Journalism and Communications at the Marmara University in Istanbul.

His first novel “Yalnızlık Ölümden Çok” (Loneliness is more than death) was published in 2013 and became a big success in Turkey. In it, he sketches a family constellation, in which the characters attempt to resist self-destruction and madness in the face of a demoralising social environment. At the centre of the novel is an unsuccessful head of a family, who “even failed at his suicide attempt”.

With his clear writing style Orhan transmits complex themes and makes them accessible for the general public. He belongs to the Gezi Park activists and has published texts about the protests in the magazines “Egoist Okur” and “Aykırı Akademi”.

Publications

Yalnızlık Ölümden Çok (Loneliness is more than death), Sayfazar Verlag 2013

Neslihan Yalman (born 1982, Ankara, Turkey) lives in Izmir, where she teaches literature and poetry. She publishes poems regularly on the website “Haber3” and in literary magazines. Yalman is one of the few women poets in Turkey who confronts feminine taboo topics and foregrounds the feminine and masculine characteristics of the Turkish language. At the centre of her poems are female sexuality and eroticism, nudity and uncovering, abortion and fertility; they bear elements of shamanism.

Alongside her literary work, Yalman showed her artistic diversity with the film “10. Köy: Teyatora”. For her play “Yaşama Dokuna(maya)nlar Çadırı” she received the 2004 theatre prize “Suat Taşer Kısa Oyun Ödülü”.

Yalman studied Sociology at the Akdeniz University in Antalya, and Fine Arts at the Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. She completed her second degree in dramatic and creative writing for the stage. Additionally she has completed studies at Gazi University in Ankara in ethnology and folk art.

Publications

İncinme Halleri (Situation of Injuries), Kanguru Yayınları 2013
Am'a'erkil, Şiirden Yayıncılık 2014