Novelist, short story writer and translator.
Ciwanmerd Kulek was born in 1984 in Dêrîş (Soylu), a village of the town of Stewrê (Savur) in Mêrdîn (Mardin) Province. When his family moved to the town of Bismil of Amed (Diyarbakir) Province in 1990, he started primary school in that town and lived there until he graduated from secondary school. In 1998, he earned a place as a boarding student at the Anatolian Teacher Training High School in the town of Erxenî (Ergani) of Amed. Between 2002 and 2006, he studied English Teaching at the Middle East Technical University and did a minor in the History of Philosophy. After graduating, he taught English in Cizîr (Cizre) and Bismil. He started to read and write in Kurdish in 2004, and so far, he has published several of his novels, short stories, poems and translations from English, Spanish and Turkish. In 2013, he was a participant in a panel discussion at The London Book Fair on the theme of Migrant, Diaspora and Minority Writing. In 2015, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin hosted him as a guest author for a month and he participated in a conversation about his authorship and works on a reading night event, in which extracts from his novel Defterên Perîdankan (Notebooks of the Butterflies) were read in German. He was chosen as one of 2016’s ten new voices of Europe by the jury of New Voices for Europe, alongside many writers, poets, journalists, and translators from different countries in Europe. Ciwanmerd Kulek has been living in Istanbul since 2014.
Works:
Novels:
Nameyek Ji Xwedê Re (A Letter to God), Lîs Editions, 2007 (second edition, Avesta Editions, 2015)
Otobês (The Bus), Lîs Editions, 2010 (second edition, Avesta Editions, 2015)
Zarokên Ber Çêm (Children By The River), Lîs Editions, 2012 (second edition, Avesta Editions, 2015)
Defterên Perîdankan (Notebooks of the Butterflies), Avesta Editions, 2014
Short story collections:
Çar Yek (One Fourth), Avesta Editions, 2015
Poetry:
Strana Şev û Rojekê (Song of One Night and One Day), Avesta Editions, 2016
Translations:
Hetîketî (Disgrace), J. M. Coetzee, novel, Lîs Editions, 2010
Li Ber Sikratê (As I Lay Dying), William Faulkner, novel, Lîs Editions, 2012
Berriya Şewitî (El Llano En Llamas), Juan Rulfo, short story, Lîs Editions, 2013
Serencama Mirinekê (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), Gabriel García Márquez, novel, Lîs Editions, 2013
Çîrokên Dubliniyan (Dubliners), James Joyce, short story, Lîs Editions, 2013
Keleha Spî (The White Castle), Orhan Pamuk, novel, Lîs Editions, 2014
Li Çiyayên Andê (Death in the Andes), Mario Vargas Llosa, novel, Avesta Editions, 2016
Contact information:
Email address: ciwanmerd_kulek@yahoo.com.tr.[1]