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An Excerpt from A Place on Your Face
Translator: Suna Kafadar
Author: Sema Kaygusuz
Ortadan Yarısından, Sema Kaygusuz’ first collection of short stories, was published in 1997 by Can Publishing House. Sandık Lekesi (2000, Can), second collection of short stories won the prestigious Cevdet Kudret Literature Prize and received a wide public acclaim. Doyma Noktası (2002, Can) and Esir Sözler Kuyusu and (2004, Doğan Kitap) are the last two collections of short stories published by the author.
Her first novel, Yere Düşen Dualar (Prayers Falling on Earth), was published in March 2006 by Doğan Kitap Publishing House. In 2006, Sema Kaygusuz co-authored a movie script titled Pandora’s Box, together with Yeşim Ustaoğlu, an internationally acclaimed Turkish director known for her feature films Journey to the Sun and Waiting for the Clouds. Pandora’s Box won the Golden Shell for Best Film award at the Sebastian film Festival in 2008.
Following extensive research on the cults, rituals and popular beliefs prevailing in Turkey, she published Öbür Yanım (My Other Side), a documentary book that features, along with Sema Kaygusuz’ observations, works by renowned photographers with whom she collaborated on this project. In September 2008, Kaygusuz was invited to Berlin as part of the project Yakın Bakış (Close Glance), which is an exchange writers program between Germany and Turkey. Her observations on Berlin were published as part of this initiative.
After receiving the Marguerite Yourcenar Scholarship, she spent two months (May/June 2009) in Saint-Jans-Cappel at Marguerite Yourcenar villa to finish writing her latest novel A Place on Your Face, which came out in September 2009.
Sema Kaygusuz will spend 2010 in Berlin as part of an artist-in-residency program funded by DAAD, one of the most distinguished institutions in Germany. She holds various positions at respected institutions such as PEN (Association of Writers in Turkey) where she has been a board member; at Bilgi University and Aralık Foundation she has been holding literary workshops on ‘creative reading and writing’ since 2000; and she has been a freelance writer for Notos and Milliyet Sanat.
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