Sema Kaygusuz (born August 29, 1972, in
Samsun
Samsun, historically known as Sampsounta ( gr, Σαμψούντα) and Amisos (Ancient Greek: Αμισός), is a city on the north coast of Turkey and is a major Black Sea port. In 2021, Samsun recorded a population of 710,000 people. The cit ...
, Turkey) is a novelist, playwright, essayist, and short story writer from
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Her work has been translated into English, Italian, German, French, Swedish, and Norwegian. She won a
Yunus Nadi Award in 2016 for her novel ''Laughter of the Barbarian''. Among other accolades, she is a recipient of the Cevdet-Kudret-Literature Award, the France-Turquie Literary Award, and was named laureate of the
German Friedrich Rückert Prize. The English translation of her novel ''Yüzünde Bir Yer (Every Fire You Tend)'' won both the
TA First Translation Prize
The TA First Translation Prize was established by Daniel Hahn in 2017 and is awarded annually to for a debut literary translation, to be shared equally between the first-time translator and their editor.
About the prize
The prize was established ...
and an
English PEN
Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associati ...
Award. She currently resides in Istanbul.
As a screenwriter, she co-wrote the screenplay for the 2008 film
Pandora's Box
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem '' Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing phy ...
(Turkish: Pandora'nın Kutusu) with director
Yeşim Ustaoğlu.
Selected works
In Turkish
* Ortadan Yarısından (short story), 1997
* Sandık Lekesi (short story), 2000
* Doyma Noktası (short story), 2002
* Esir Sözler Kuyusu (short story), 2004
* Yere Düşen Dualar (novel), 2006
* Yüzünde Bir Yer (novel), 2009
* Karaduygun (short story), 2012
* Barbarin kahkahasi (novel), 2016
* Aramızdaki ağaç yazılar (essays), 2019
Translated works
* Wein und Gold Roman, translated by Barbara Yurtdas and Hüseyin Yurtdas (
Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008)
* La chute des prières: roman, translated by Noémi Cingöz (
Actes Sud
Actes Sud is a French publishing house based in Arles. It was founded in 1978 by author Hubert Nyssen. By 2013, the company, then headed by Nyssen's daughter, Françoise Nyssen, had an annual turnover of 60 million euros and 60 staff members.
...
, 2009)
* Ce lieu sur ton visage: roman, translated by Catherine Erikan (Actes Sud, 2013)
* En bønn faller til jorden, translated by Cora Skylstad (Cappelen Damm, 2015)
* Platsen i ditt ansikte, translated by Ulla Bruncrona (Ersatz, 2015)
* The Well of Trapped Words, translated by Maureen Freely (
Comma Press, 2015)
* L'éclat de rire du barbare, translated by Catherine Erikan (Lettres turques, 2017)
* Every Fire You Tend, translated by Nicholas Glastonbury (Tilted Axis Press, 2019)
* La risata del barbaro, translated by Giulia Ansaldo (Voland, 2020)
* The Passenger: Turkey (
Europa Editions, 2021)
References
Living people
Turkish novelists
21st-century Turkish women writers
Turkish women novelists
1972 births
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