The Best European Fiction

The Best European Fiction is an annual anthology of stories from across Europe. It is edited by the renowned Bosnian author and MacArthur “Genius-Award” winner Aleksander Hemon. This year, a chapter from The Theory of Infirmity by Ersan Üldes, one of the contributors of Turkish Book Review is...

A Brief Note on Alphabet Reform in Turkey

In Turkey, you can see examples of writing from the past everywhere. However, most people cannot read them because these writings on fountains, mosques and doors are written using a different alphabet than the one used today in Turkey. This old alphabet consists of Arabic letters with some additional...

God’s Word Embodied

OTTOMAN ART OF CALLIGRAPHY (Hüsnühat) by Ahmet Soysal Norgunk Publishing, 68 pp., 2004, ISBN: 978-975-8686-18-6 ‘And He taught Adam the names of all things.’ (Quran 2:31) The primary, universal and transcendent language which was taught to Adam doesn’t only consist of the voices which have a...

In the Realm of Letters

HURUFISM (Hurûfîlik) by Ömer Tecimer Plan B, 226 pp., 2008, ISBN: 978-975-8723-19-5 LA, A SYLLABLE OF ETERNITY (Lâ: Sonsuzluk Hecesi) by Nazan Bekiroğlu Timaş Publications, 384 pp., 2009, 978-975-263-851-8 BALEYBELEN by Mustafa Koç Klasik, 747 pp., 2005, 978-975-8740-35-1 From the...

I Forgot the Words, But I Knew the Substance

HURUFI POEMS (Hurufî Şiirler) by Hilmi Yavuz YKY, 58 pp., 2005, ISBN: 978-975-08-0890-6 From the article… No east can deny its west; no modernity can be built without tradition. Hilmi Yavuz calls it ‘accuracy’ and defines the accuracy as the shared identity between the poet and his/her...

In the Corridors of Language and Literature with Tahsin Yücel

From the interview…. You have written some of your books in French. One of those books, Coordonnées Narratives was later published in Turkish as well with your own translation. In the foreword of the Turkish translation, you say, ‘I could never answer the question that, If I had written this book in...