Müesser Yeniay
(Turkey, 1984) is a writer, poet, journalist and literary translator. Her poetry has won several Turkish awards. Her books include Darkness Also Falls Ground (2009), I Founded My Home in the Mountains (translation), I Drew the Sky Again (2011), The Other Consciousness: Surrealism and The Second New (2013, on modern Turkish avant-garde poetry), Before Me There Were Deserts (2014), Modern Readings in Turkish Literature (2016), Permanent Talk with the Beloved (2017), and The Memory of Poetry: Writings on Poetics, Canon and Women (2018). She has translated the poetry of Behruz Kia, Ronny Someck, Attila F. Balazs, and Vietnamese poets Mai Van Phan and Nguyễn Quang Thiều. Her poetry has been translated and published in the USA (Mundus Artium Press, When I Slept in a Rose Petal), Hungary (AB-Art, A Rozsaszedes Szertartasa), France (Edition Bruno Doucey, Ainsi Disent-ils) India (Bodhi), Colombia (Silaba, Antes de mi Habia Desiertos), Spain (Edicion de Jaime B. Rosa, Poemas Selectos), Vietnam (Vietnam Writers' Association, Nghi le Hai Hoa Hong Trong Vuon), Japan (Duet of Flame), and Portugal (Poesia a Sul, Conversa Permanente Com O Amado). She has been a writer-in-residence in the USA, Hong Kong and Belgium. Müesser is the editor of the literature magazine Şiirden (Of Poetry). She is currently pursuing a PhD in Turkish literature at Bilkent University in Ankara.
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Archive available for: Müesser Yeniay
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What Will They Say, Meltem?
About literature, poetry, feminism and violence - with Müesser Yeniay, Çiler İlhan, Sanem Kalfa, Meltem Halaceli & Canan Marasligil (moderator)
In What Will They Say, Meltem?, Meltem Halaceli, Müesser Yeniay and Çiler İlhan discussed what role literature and poetry can play in bringing to light violence against women. This event was the live finale of a series of podcasts with the same title by Winternachten programmer Meltem Halaceli. Domestic violence against women and LGBT-groups has increased worldwide and femicide has become a growing problem. Struck by this reality, Meltem Halaceli went in search of her family's feminist values and made a podcast about them. Her mother's eyes were opened by novels and poetry by Turkish, Russian and American authors who wrote about the unequal status of women. In her podcast, Meltem spoke to writers, poets and experts and asked them how they use their knowledge and literature to bring violence against women into the open.
In this live event we first of all met Turkish poet Müesser Yeniay, who recited a number of new poems. In the introduction to her latest collection Sevgiliyle Daimi Konuşma (Endless Conversation with the Loved One) she wrote: "For many Eastern women, poetry is the only place she exists." What does that mean for her poetry? The second guest was Çiler İlhan, who moved to the Netherlands from Turkey in 2017. She spoke about her latest novel Nişan Evi (Engagement House), in which women are seen as commercial objects - a body and nothing more. Her earlier book Sürgün (Exiled) won the EU Literature Prize and was translated into 20 languages. Jazz singer Sanem Kalfa framed the conversation with live music. Canan Marasligil, a translator and writer, moderated the event.
We concluded this program with a screening of the Writers' Monument. Like every year, The Theatre of Wrong Decisions has made made an updated version of their 'digital monument' for the journalists and writers who were murdered. The monument could be seen during the opening of Winternachten, to stand still together, reflect and realize how many people worldwide sacrifice their lives simply by holding the pen and wanting to tell the truth.
English spoken.
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A Book to Call Home with Müesser Yeniay
Following up on the festival theme Whose House is This?, in A Book to Come Home to we asked one festival author the following question: which book brought you home? The answers could go in all directions. Perhaps the author chose a book that describes a house that feels like his/her own home, or a place where he/she wishes to live. But it could also be a book whose style of writing or manner of thinking makes the author feel at home. Or it could be the relief of finally reading a story in which the protagonist reflects his/her appearance. The program was a peek into the bookshelves as well as the soul of each author.
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Home & Violence
With Manon Uphoff, Shantie Singh, Sanneke van Hassel, Raoul de Jong, Müesser Yeniay, Margijn Bosch & Meltem Halaceli
For whom is home actually home? What if your safest place isn't safe at all? Why does "domestic violence" sound like something "domestic" or even cozy? The theme Whose House is This? also requires us to discuss human violence within walls, war and peace under our own roofs, the unsafe interior world that so often remains hiden. Domestic violence, especially against women, is not a matter of isolated incidents but a societal problem. Or, like Manon Uphoff said in an interview: "They are shards that together form a mirror into which society needs to look."What does literature tell us about this great theme? We invited you to an initial exploration, a collage of literary texts about domestic violence. Manon Uphoff, Iris van Vliet, Shantie Singh and Sanneke van Hassel of the writers' collective Fixdit, together with Meltem Halaceli and Ellen Walraven of Winternachten, collected a large number of literary excerpts for this event.
Writers Manon Uphoff, Sanneke van Hassel, Shantie Singh, Raoul de Jong, Müesser Yeniay, Meltem Halaceli and actor Margijn Bosch read these excerpts in an intimate setting, close to the public. We read works by and sometimes also with the actual authors:
Elif Shafak, Manon Uphoff, Shantie Singh, Margaret Atwood, Rebecca Solnit, Alice Munro, Astrid Roemer, Philip Huff, A.M. Homes, Müesser Yeniay, Ronelda Kamfer and many more. And yes, this could be painful and confrontational. But this topic deserved a literary investigation and probe. What is going on in the various rooms of ever-changing houses in which it is not safe?Dutch spoken.