Free the Word! Istanbul 12 June 2010
International PEN and PEN Turkey present
Free the Word!
After London, Jamaica, Guadalajara, Dubai, Linz and Santiago de Compostela... Now in Istanbul
Writers in Conversation
Saturday 12 June 2010
14:00-15:30
Eugene Schoulgin, Inci Aral and Asli Erdogan
Moderator: Tarik Günersel
16:00-17:30
Juli Zeh and Murat Uyurkulak
Location:
Cezayir Meeting Hall
Hayriye Caddesi 12, Galatasaray, Beyoglu
(Behind Galatasaray High School)
Turkish-English simultaneous translation will be provided.
Inci Aral was born in Denizli and studied art at the Gazi Institute. She began her literary career in 1977 by publishing short stories in various literary magazines. Her first book of short stories was published in 1979 and awarded a prestigious literary prize. Her second book Massacre Scenes was about the Maras Massacre of 1978. It was published in 1983, awarded the Nevzat Üstün Short Story Prize and published in French translation in 1989. Inci Aral has published close to twenty books. Her collection of short stories Forty Degrees in the Shade (2000) was awarded the Yunus Nadi Short Story Prize, and her 2003 novel Purple won the Orhan Kemal Novel Award. Her latest book Loyalty was published this year. Inci Aral is currently President of PEN Turkey.
Asli Erdogan was born in Istanbul in 1967. Formerly a physicist, she left her scientific career for a literary one. Erdogan's first book was the novel The Shell Man (1994). It was followed by a collection of short stories entitled The Miraculous Mandarin in 1996. She received the Deutsche Welle Prize for her short story "The Wooden Birds". Her second novel The City in Crimson Cloak has been translated into seven languages, establishing her as an internationally renowned writer. The French literary magazine Lire listed her amongst the "50 Promising Writers". Her latest book Stone Building and Others was awarded this year's Sait Faik Short Story Prize.
Eugene Schoulgin is the International Secretary and Chairman of the Board of International PEN. An award-winning author, he is of Norwegian-Russian origin. Since his first novel The Rabbit Cage in 1970, he has published both short stories and novels, most notably the best selling trilogy Memories of Mirella, Federico - Federico! and Salto Mortale. Since 1994, he has divided his time between writing and working for the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN which he chaired from 2000 to 2004. With this committee he visited many countries and helped to set up PEN Centres in some of the more troubled regions of the world including Afghanistan and Iraq. Schoulgin's work has been translated into Swedish, German, Russian, Slovak, English, Lithuanian and Turkish.
Murat Uyurkulak was born in 1972 in Aydin, is from Izmir, and lives in Istanbul. He studied Law and Art History, and dropped out of both. He worked as a waiter, technician, translator, journalist and publisher. His first book Tol: A Revenge Novel was published in 2002, and his second book Har: An Apocalyptic Novel was published in 2006. Tol has been published in French and German. It was also adapted for the theater, enjoying a long and successful run. Uyurkulak currently works as a journalist and translator.
Juli Zeh was born in 1974 in Bonn. She studied European and International Law in Passau and Leipzig. She worked at the United Nations in New York and in Krakow. Her first novel Eagles and Angels was published in 2001 and translated into thirty languages. In addition to her works of fiction, Zeh has published a travelogue to Bosnia, a treatise on the legal issues around EU Enlargement and a little encyclopedia for household dogs. Juli Zeh has won a literary prize nearly every year since 1999, including the Humbold University Essay Award, Caroline Schlegel Award, German Book Award, Ernst Toller Award, as well as the international Per Olov Enquist Award and the French Prix Cévennes for Best European Novel.