Ayşegül Savaş is a Turkish writer who publishes mainly in American literary media. She was raised in Turkey and Denmark, then attended

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

in Vermont. She graduated in 2007. She worked as a staff writer on ''The Middlebury Campus'', writing often for the paper's arts section. She majored in sociology and anthropology. During her years at Middlebury she studied abroad in Russia (Yaroslavl) and France (Paris). She received an MFA at the University of San Francisco. Savaş teaches at the Sorbonne. Among authors who have influenced her, she names

Patrick Modiano Jean Patrick Modiano (; born 30 July 1945), generally known as Patrick Modiano, is a French novelist and recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is a noted writer of autofiction, the blend of autobiography and historical fiction. I ...

Georgi Gospodinov Georgi Gospodinov ( bg, Георги Господинов; born January 7, 1968) is a Bulgarian writer, poet and playwright. One of the most translated Bulgarian authors after 1989, he has four poetry books awarded with national literary prizes. ...

, and

Enrique Vila-Matas Enrique Vila-Matas (born 31 March 1948 in Barcelona) is a Spanish author. He has authored several award-winning books that mix genres and has been branded as one of the most original and prominent writers in the Spanish language. He is a foundi ...

Short fiction and essays

She has published short stories and essays in publications that include ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

The Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on hi ...

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

Literary Hub Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Conten ...

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

The Dublin Review ''The Dublin Review'' is a quarterly magazine that publishes essays, reportage, autobiography, travel writing, criticism and fiction. It was launched in December 2000 by Brendan Barrington, who remains the editor and publisher, assisted by Nora ...

,'' and ''

Black Warrior Review ''Black Warrior Review (BWR)'' is a non-profit American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. It is the oldest continuously run literary journal by graduate students in the United States. Published in print bi ...

''.

Novels

Her first novel was ''Walking on the Ceiling'' (2019), published by

Riverhead Books Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James (novelist), Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, ...

. A reviewer in Booklist called it "deceptively simple and subtly profound." The second, published by the same publishing house, is titled ''White on White'' (2021). Anthony Cummins of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' reviewed it favorably, noting that the writing style in the book is like austere painting.

References

External links

Savas' Homepage

"Ayşegül Savaş on Desire and Disappointment"; interview with Cressida Leyshon in ''The New Yorker'' (January 24, 2022)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savaş, Ayşegül Middlebury College alumni University of San Francisco alumni 21st-century Turkish women writers The New Yorker people Granta people Writers from Paris 21st-century Turkish short story writers Turkish women essayists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Turkish women novelists Turkish women short story writers