Kaya Genç is the author of three books from Bloomsbury Publishing: The Lion and the Nightingale (2019), Under the Shadow (2016), and An Istanbul Anthology (2015). He has contributed to the world’s leading journals and newspapers, including two front page stories in The New York Times, cover stories in The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, and The Times Literary Supplement, and essays and articles in The New Yorker, The Nation, The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Statesman, The New Republic, Time, Newsweek, and the London Review of Books. The Atlantic picked Kaya’s writings for the magazine’s “best works of journalism in 2014” list. A critic for Artforum and Art in America, and a contributing editor at Index on Censorship, Kaya gave lectures at venues including the Royal Anthropological Institute, and appeared live on flagship programs including the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC and BBC’s Start the Week. He has been a speaker at Edinburgh, Jaipur, and Ways with Words book festivals, and holds a PhD in English literature. Kaya is the Istanbul correspondent of the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Kaya Genç
Articles
Whatever I Can Have, Nothing I Want: On Nazlı Koca’s “The Applicant”
Kaya Genç reviews Turkish author Nazlı Koca’s debut novel “The Applicant.”
Turkey’s Feminist Autofictionalist: On Tezer Özlü’s “Cold Nights of Childhood”
Kaya Genç reviews Turkish author Tezer Özlü’s newly translated novel “Cold Nights of Childhood.”
Literature Takes Courage: On Ahmet Altan’s “Lady Life”
Kaya Genç reviews Turkish author Ahmet Altan’s “Lady Life.”
All That Really Happens Happens to Me: On Annie Ernaux’s “Getting Lost”
Kaya Genç surveys the work of Annie Ernaux via her memoir “Getting Lost,” translated by Alison L. Strayer.
What Happened?: On Dimitar Bechev’s “Turkey Under Erdogan”
Kaya Genç assesses Dimitar Bechev’s indictment of Turkish democracy.
“The Sights and Sounds of Life”: On Matthew Sturgis’s Biography of Oscar Wilde
“Oscar Wilde: A Life” displays an almost Tolstoyan attention to detail.
My Lonely and Beautiful Country: On Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Kaya Genç analyzes the body of work of Turkey’s foremost contemporary filmmaker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, through the lens of a recent academic monograph.
“Exquisitely Curated Lives”: On Ayşegül Savaş’s “White on White”
The celebrated Turkish author’s second novel is a spare, affecting study of friendship between women.
After an Opposition Victory, Istanbul’s Youth Feel Emancipated and Precarious
Kaya Genç discusses the recent political trends among Turkish youth.
Portnoy’s Complaint in Turkish
Kaya Genç on the Turkish ban of Philip Roth's 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint."
Istanbul's Libraries: A Refuge in Uncertain Times
Kaya Genç describes the many libraries of Istanbul, in which Turks have taken refuge in the midst of recent turmoil.
At Santa Maddalena
At Santa Maddalena
The Pleasures of the Glimpse: On Dirk Braeckman at the Venice Biennale
The Pleasures of the Glimpse: On Dirk Braeckman at the Venice Bienniale - BLARB
On the “demonic energy & radiance” of “Mustang”
Unlike it's reception in United States, "Mustang" has been divisive in Turkey
Turkish Contemporary Art 2.0
Kaya Genç interviews contemporary Turkish artist Halil Altındere and writer Süreyyya Evren about "User’s Manual 2.0: Contemporary Art in Turkey 1975–2015."
The Return of the Repressed
Arabic is one of the six most spoken languages in the world today, with more than 400 million people using one of its varieties.
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