Translating Women’s Writing from Turkish into English – 19 June 2022

Call for Workshop Participants for a one-day, face-to face workshop, 19 June 2022, Özyeğin University, Altunizade Campus

We are pleased to announce that as part of the AHRC network ‘Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction’ and as a follow-up event to our ‘Women’s Genre Writing: From Turkey to the Rest of the World’ symposium, we will be hosting a one-day literary translation workshop from Turkish to English. The purpose of the workshop is to encourage creative interest in translations of Turkish literary texts. We hope to create space in which fruitful and rich discussions can take place regarding the translations.

The workshop will be designed and moderated by Rakesh Jobanputra (Boğaziçi University). Rakesh studied at the University of Birmingham and SOAS, University of London, and has taught at Istanbul Technical University, the University of Qatar in Doha, Istanbul Şehir University and (currently) Boğaziçi University. He has been a literary translator for over ten years and has worked with authors such as Perihan Mağden, Oya Baydar, Ayfer Tunç and Ahmet Ümit.

How do I get involved?

Applicants are invited to select a literary text by any female writer writing in Turkish in the post-1980 period which they intend to translate in readiness for the workshop. The text should be a fictional or non-fictional literary prose text, such as an extract from a novel, a short story, memoirs, travel writing, letters, essays, etc. The selected text should be between 1500 and 2000 words. The applicants are kindly asked to submit a letter of intention detailing their motivations for selecting their chosen text (please explain why you want to attend, why you have chosen this particular author and what you think the challenges will be), along with a brief biography of the applicant.

Letters of intention should be 250-500 words and biographies should not exceed 250 words. Once applications are reviewed and accepted, applicants will submit a draft translation of the text they have chosen which will then be finalised for the workshop. Participants will be given certificates of attendance. Letters of invitation and biographies should be emailed to womensgenrewriting@gmail.com by Monday 20 April 2022.

The layout of the day

The workshop will run from 9 am to 5 pm. In the morning session, participants will share their work with fellow translators and discuss the challenges they faced and the choices they made. In the second session, participants will edit their work and in the third session, they will share their finalised work with the group.

Important dates

Deadline for applications: 20 April 2022
Notifications will be sent by 25 April 2022
Draft translations should be finalised and submitted as preparation for the workshop by the 10 June.

Organization Committee

Şima İmşir (Özyeğin University)
Duygu Tekgül-Akın (Yeditepe University)
Rakesh Jobanputra (Boğaziçi University)
Please contact us via womensgenrewriting@gmail.com if you’d like to learn more about the workshop or if you have any queries.