A new book of poetry by Bilkent PhD student, author and editor Müesser Yeniay has just come out. Entitled “Ben Olmadan Çöller Vardı,” it is a publication of Şiirden Yayınları in İstanbul.
The book has two parts: “Dünyanın Rahmi” and “Varlığın Çölünde.” The first part deals with the problems of womanhood, and the second with existence and being. The poem that gives the book its title was inspired by the Muallaqat (a collection of pre-Islamic Arabic poems).
A graduate of Ege University, Ms. Yeniay is a PhD student in Bilkent’s Department of Turkish Literature. She is also editor of the literary magazine Şiirden. Her first book, “Dibine Düşüyor Karanlık da,” was published in 2009, and her second book, “Evimi Dağlara Kurdum,” was a collection of translated works from world poetry. Her second book of original poetry, “Yeniden Çizdim Göğü,” was published in 2011. She has translated the poems of Persian poet Behruz Kia under the title “Lalelere Requiem” and has also published a book on modern Turkish avant-garde poetry, “Öteki Bilinç: Gerçeküstücülük ve İkinci Yeni” (2013). Recently, she has translated the poems of Israeli poet Ronny Someck into Turkish, in a collection entitled “Alkol Vadisi Baladı.”
Ms. Yeniay has received the Yunus Emre (2006), Homeros Attila İlhan (2007), Ali Rıza Ertan (2009) and Enver Gökçe (2013) poetry awards in Turkey. Her poems have been translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Arabic and Hebrew, and she has participated in poetry festivals in Bosnia, Serbia, India, Romania, France, Israel, the United States and Colombia.