Efe Murad is a Turkish poet, translator, and historian.

Biography

Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Efe Murad studied philosophy at Princeton University and completed his PhD in Ottoman History and Arabic Philosophy at Harvard University. Together with Cem Kurtuluş, he wrote the Matter-Poetry Manifesto in 2004. He is the author of six books of poetry and the translator of seven more, including the first complete translation of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

’s ''Cantos'' into Turkish; volumes by the American poets

Susan Howe Susan Howe (born June 10, 1937) is an American poet, scholar, essayist, and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among other poetry movements.

Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), a ...

, and

C. K. Williams Charles Kenneth "C. K." Williams (November 4, 1936 – September 20, 2015) was an American poet, critic and translator. Williams won many poetry awards. ''Flesh and Blood'' won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987. ''Repair'' (1999) won ...

, the German author

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

, as well as the Iranian poets

Mahmoud Mosharraf Azad Tehrani Mahmoud Moshref Azad Tehrani ( fa, محمود مشرف آزاد تهرانی; December 9, 1934 in Tehran – January 19, 2006 in Tehran) was a contemporary Persian poet with M. Azad () as his pen-name. Some of his poems have been sung by severa ...

and

Fereydoon Moshiri Fereydoon Moshiri ( fa, فریدون مشیری; September 21, 1926 – October 24, 2000) was one of the prominent contemporary Persian poets who wrote poems in both modern and classic styles of the Persian poem. A selection of his poems has been ...

. Together with the American poet and translator

Sidney Wade Sidney Wade (born 1951) is an American poet. She currently holds the position of Professor of creative writing at the University of Florida, where she has taught since 1993. Biography Wade was born in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1951. She attended ...

, he co-translated a collection of poems by the Turkish modernist

Melih Cevdet Anday Melih Cevdet Anday (13 March 1915 – 28 November 2002) was a Turkish writer whose poetry stands outside the traditional literary movements. He also wrote in many other genres which, over six and a half decades, included eleven collections of p ...

under the title ''Silent Stones'' (Talisman Press, 2017), which was awarded "the Meral Divitçi Prize for Turkish Poetry in Translation." His poems, writings and translations in English have appeared in a wide range of journals including ''The American Reader'', ''Five Points'', ''Denver Quarterly'', ''Guernica'', ''Critical Flame'', ''Turkish Poetry Today'', ''Poet Lore'', ''Asymptote'', ''Jacket2'', and ''Two Lines'', and exhibitions including the 13th Istanbul Biennial. In 2021, he published a volume of memoristic essay, ''The Pleasures of Empty Lots'', which concerns the culture of flaneurship and the rise of authoritarianism in his hometown

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. His bilingual book of poetry, ''Breaking of Symmetry/Simetrinin Kırılması'', a collaboration with the Harvard University quantum physics researcher Dr. Sina Zeytinoğlu and poet-artist Sevinç Çalhanoğlu came out in a special edition of 400, funded by the European Union Grant Scheme for Common Cultural Heritage, as well as Turkey’s Aşina Project. According to the description included in the book, Murad recorded various conversations with Dr. Zeytinoğlu about his research on

symmetry breaking In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which (infinitesimally) small fluctuations acting on a system crossing a critical point decide the system's fate, by determining which branch of a bifurcation is taken. To an outside observe ...

s and

phase transition In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of ...

s. Having transcribed these recorded conversations, Murad chiseled Dr. Zeytinoğlu’s words into poetry by mixing them with corresponding contexts in Islamic philosophy and Sufism. A scholar of Ottoman history and Islamic philosophy, he is currently teaching history, religion, and writing at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

. His ongoing practice melds paleography, found footage, soundscapes, and mystical experience in poetry. ''An Organ of Quality'', a cycle of poems will be published by Bored Wolves Press in 2023.

Books in English

* ''The Pleasures of Empty Lots'' (Bored Wolves Press, 2021) . * ''Silent Stones'', co-trans. w/

(Talisman House, 2017) . * ''Breaking of Symmetry/Simetrinin Kırılması'', in collaboration w/ Sina Zeytinoğlu, Sevinç Çalhanoğlu, and translator Fahri Öz (European Union Grant Scheme for Common Cultural Heritage, 2022) .

Poems in English Translation

* "Encirclings" (trans. Murat Nemet-Nejat from "An Organ of Quality") published in an anthology of Mediterranean poets ''Circle Surface Sun: From Somewhere in the Mediterranean'', eds. Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout (Schlebrügge.Editor, 2020) .

References

External links

* A survey of contemporary experimental poetry in Turkey "Visuality, Non-Agency, and Found Footage in ''heves'': New Trends in Contemporary Turkish Poetry (2003-2010)" published by ''elit: Literaturhaus Europa'

* Poems in English in ''Jacket2'',
Jacket 34 - October 2007 - Murat Nemet-Nejat: A Godless Sufism: Selections from «Eda: A Contemporary Anthology of 20th Century Turkish Poetry», Murat Nemet-Nejat, Ed.
* On "The Materialist Poem"in ''Jacket2'
Jacket 34 - October 2007 - Murat Nemet-Nejat: A Godless Sufism: Essays on, including selected translations from, «Eda: «Eda: A Contemporary Anthology of 20th Century Turkish Poetry», Murat Nemet-Nejat, Ed.
*"A poem in the manner of Karacaoglan", translations by

and Efe Murad in ''Asymptote'
sections 1 and 4sections 6-8
* "Streets of Istanbul," a poetry performance along with Irina Baldini and Çağlar Köseoğlu, Winternachten Literature Festival in the Hague 201

* "Book of My Life," an interview at the Winternachten Literature Festival in the Hague 2018

* "Fraternité! The Forgotten Value of Brotherhood," along with

David Van Reybrouck David Grégoire Van Reybrouck (born 11 September 1971, in Bruges) is a Belgian cultural historian, archaeologist and author. He writes historical fiction, literary non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and academic texts. He has received several Du ...

and

Fatma Aydemir Fatma Aydemir (born 1986) is a German author and journalist based in Berlin. She is best known for her novel ''Ellbogen'' (Elbow), which won both the 2018 Franz-Hessel-Preis, Franz Hessel Prize and the Klaus-Michael Kühne, Klaus Michael Kühne ...

, Winternachten Literature Festival in the Hague 201

*"Voice", a translation by

and Efe Murad in ''Guernica'
Voice
* "Garip: A Turkish Poetry Manifesto", a translation by

and Efe Murad in ''Critical Flame'
''The Critical Flame''
* A Word's Autobiography on Seyhan Erözçelik in ''Jacket2''
A word's autobiography , Jacket2
* "Silent Stones: Selected Poems of Melih Cevdet Anday"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murad, Efe 1987 births Writers from Istanbul Turkish poets 21st-century poets Living people Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni Wellesley College faculty