We’ve recently acquired two works from Turkish writer Sevgi Soysal, whose 1978 novel Dawn we brought out with translator Maureen Freely in 2022. Sevgi Soysal’s work was and continues to be controversial in Turkey for her radical political stance during some of Turkey’s most tumultuous and violent years. She renders her feminism with fearless characters, blazing prose, and poetic clarity. Because of its transgressive nature, there is no funding available from the Turkish government for translations.

We are seeking funding for two Soyal works. The first is a prison memoir called Yildirim Bolge Kadinlar Kogusu (Yildrim Bolge Women’s Ward), a slim but powerful account of Soysal’s arrest and incarceration in . We’ve also acquired a novel titled Yurumek (Walking). Banned after its publication in 1970 due to its unsparing take on the sexual politics of the era, Walking is a searching and poetic narrative that roves like a camera lens over the vibrant city streets of Ankara. Walking braids together the innermost thoughts of two characters, a young woman and a young man, as they grow inside of and beyond their environments, hoping to make sense of their conflicted feelings about who they are and what they are told about themselves. Translator Maureen writes: “What most draws me to this novel, though, is its manner of telling – its weaving of landscapes, rural and urban, natural and unnatural, into its tapestry of terse, tightly focussed, bitterly funny sexual vignettes, The overall effect is as mysterious as sex itself.”

We plan to bring out both books together so that readers can experience the grip of her nonfiction alongside her imaginative fiction.