Making Literature Travel

Gonca Özmen graduated from the English Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University in 2004, holds an M.A. and is now studying for a PhD. Her first poetry book Kuytumda (In My Nook) was published in 2000 when she was eighteen years old. She was awarded a Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Prize, the Ali Rıza Ertan Poetry Prize, the Orhan Murat Arıburnu Poetry Prize and the Berna Moran Poetry Prize. She is one of the editors of the literary translation magazine Ç.N. (Çevirmenin Notu). Her poems have been translated into Spanish, French, English, German, Slovenian and Persian. Her second book Belki Sessiz (Maybe Quiet) came out in 2008 and The Sea Within – Selected Poems, translated into English by George Messo, was published by Shearsman in 2011. She lives in İstanbul.