Reading Turkish Literature in the 21st Century

LONDON (26 February 2013) ---This inaugural conference 'Reading Turkish Literature in the 21st Century' is the first major cultural activity in honour of Turkey being the 2013 London Book Fair's Market Focus Country with the aim of cultivating research and interest in Turkish literature by attracting the interest of the academic world and other professionals. The General Director for Libraries and Publications of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Professor, Dr Onur Bilge Kula, and Co-ordinator of the Turkish National Organising Committee for the London Book Fair Market Focus Programme, Ümit Yaşar Gözüm, will take part in the opening of the conference.

The conference has been organised by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism in association with Oxford University on 1-2 March 2013 at Ertegun House, Oxford. The Turkish National Organising Committee states: "We are thrilled that the richness of Turkish literature will be under the spotlight at this conference, giving a pre-taste to the forthcoming London Book Fair 2013 when Turkey will be its market focus".

Four panels will held over the two days on different themes with key speakers as follows:

Contemporary Turkish Literature - Professor Murat Belge (Istanbul Bilgi University): The Contemporary Turkish Novel  /  Dr Yalçın Armağan (Istanbul Şehir University): Born Under İkinci Yeni: Contemporary Turkish Poetry /  Professor Yavuz Demir (Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun): Telling Stories in Turkey from Tradition to Nobel Prize 

Translating Turkish Literature - Professor Maureen Freely (University of Warwick): The Long and Winding Road, or the difficult business of Turkish-to-English translation / Dr Duygu Tekgül (Yeditepe University¸ Istanbul): The Modern Turkish Novel in English Translation / Nermin Mollaoğlu (Kalem Agency, Istanbul): The Literary Agent’s View 

Turkish Literature in all its Colours: Other Voices - Dr Hülya Adak (Sabancı University, Istanbul): Armenian Literature in Turkey / Özlem Galip (University of Exeter): Kurdish Novelistic Discourse in Turkey: Fictionalising the 'Homeland' in Different Time Zones / Dr Laurent Mignon (University of Oxford): (To) Be/longing: Remarks on Contemporary Jewish Turkish Literature 

The Reception of Turkish Literature - Dr Mehmet Kalpaklı (Bilkent University, Ankara): Looking Through Frosted Glass: Perceptions of Ottoman Literature in Modern Turkey / Dr Süha Oğuzertem (Istanbul Bilgi University): The Dilemmas and Prospects of Literary Criticism in Turkey / Dr Keya Anjaria (SOAS, London): Teaching the Turkish Novel in the Context of World Literature / Dr Robert Vivian (Alma College): A Westerner Looks Eastward: Living and Writing in Turkey