Kaya Genç

An Interview with Elif Shafak - Believer Magazine I first met Elif Shafak in 2000, at the dawn of her literary career, whose success few could have predicted at the time. It was my second year at Bilgi, a liberal-arts university in Istanbul where she...

"When we talk about writing we always assume that we are building or creating things. But it is also about destroying things."

—Elif Shafak, interviewed by Kaya Genç
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

A Jekyll and Hyde for the Manosphere “The Things You Kill” explores the pitfalls of masculinity in modern-day Turkey.

Khatami’s meditation on gender, family, and power was originally set in contemporary Iran. Sadly, much of it translates all too well, arriving as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reasserting traditional gender norms under the banner of so-called family values.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/05/t...

A Jekyll and Hyde for the Manosphere “The Things You Kill” explores the pitfalls of masculinity in modern-day Turkey.

On toxic masculinity and manosphere for @foreignpolicy.com:

foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/05/t...

18th Istanbul Biennial Istanbul-based author Kaya Genç on “The Three-Legged Cat,” curated by Christine Tohmé.

I review Christine Tohmé’s “Three-Legged Cat” in the December 2025 issue of Artforum:

www.artforum.com/events/18th-...

18th Istanbul Biennial Istanbul-based author Kaya Genç on “The Three-Legged Cat,” curated by Christine Tohmé.

I review Christine Tohmé’s “Three-Legged Cat” in the December 2025 issue of Artforum:

www.artforum.com/events/18th-...

İlk romanım Macera’dan (2008) 17 yıl sonra, yeni bir roman:

Şehir

Bugünden itibaren önsiparişte (www.kitapyurdu.com/kitap/sehir/...).
Sia Kitap’ın muhteşem ekibi İlknur Özdemir, Salih Yavuz ve Oya Özaltın ile çalışmak harikaydı.

Kapak tasarımı: Okay Karadayılar!

Pleased to announce that our side, the Opposition, won (190 nays v 110 yeas) tonight's The Oxford Union debate: "This house mourns the demise of the Ottoman Empire”

“This House Regrets the Demise of the Ottoman Empire”

🌎 November 20
Oxford Union
@ox.ac.uk

I’ll try to persuade The Oxford Union debating club that we should not be mourning the demise of the Ottoman Empire alongside fellow opposition members Hugh Pope, Attila Pók, and Constantinos Filis.

The Turkish government’s embrace of #AI comes with sinister undertones. Contributing editor @kayagenc.bsky.social explores how President #Erdoğan is using AI to amplify government narratives and discredit and silence his opponents ⬇️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

YouTube video by Meşher İstanbul’u Yakalamak: Akışkan Bir Kentin Batı Edebiyatındaki Tasvirleri

Moderatörlüğünü Meşher’de düzenlenen "Hikâye İstanbul'da Geçiyor" sergisi küratörlerinden Ebru Esra Satıcı'nın yaptığı "İstanbul'u Yakalamak: Akışkan Bir Kentin Batı Edebiyatındaki Tasvirleri" başlıklı konuşmam yayında: youtu.be/PmcSOC7yQVw?...

What is life worth in a world as cruel as ours? This was one of the questions that Tezer Özlü’s writing dared to ask.
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/tezer-ozlu-journey-edge-life/?utm_campaign=SproutSocial&utm_content=The+Nation+Magazine&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters Journey to the Edge of Life, a striking composite of memoir, biography, and criticism, dwells on the connection between art and death.

"Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters" by @kayagenc.bsky.social . [3/5]

İlk romanım Macera'nın (2008) yayımlanmasından 17 yıl sonra, ikinci romanım yakında Sia Kitap etiketiyle kitapçılarda olacak. İki yıldır üzerinde çalıştığım yeni romanımın yayın programına dair ayrıntıları yakında paylaşacağım.

Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters Journey to the Edge of Life, a striking composite of memoir, biography, and criticism, dwells on the connection between art and death.

Tezer Özlü’nün dünyasını @thenation.com dergisi için yazdım: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Tezer Özlü—the Rebel of Turkish Letters Journey to the Edge of Life, a striking composite of memoir, biography, and criticism, dwells on the connection between art and death.

In @thenation.com @booksandthearts.bsky.social, I have a new essay on Tezer Özlü and her Journey to the Edge of Life, a striking composite of memoir, biography, and criticism, that dwells on the connection between art and death. @transitbooks.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/cult...

What I love is how you weave cinema, politics and labour — from Ceylan’s films to Syrian tech workers rebuilding home. You map the region’s emotional + political geography without cliché or romance.

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has never openly referenced politics in his films, but taken together, his body of work forms one of the most compelling accounts available of what has become of Turkey under Erdogan’s rule.

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade. Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish student...

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook: Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

New substack!

open.substack.com/pub/kayagenc...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

In prosecuting Imamoglu & other elected administrators, the government is attempting to solidify the cynicism at the crux of its ideology: There’s no use in seeking moral purity, since only the powerful and the ruthless survive in today’s Turkey. @foreignpolicy.com: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade. Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish scholar...

Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish students are directly affected, is telling, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

“I was wanted by Assad’s regime because I was an anti-government protestor. I said, ‘I’ll move for maybe one or two months.’ I stayed in Turkey for the next 13 years.”

Meet Syrian tech workers who fled as refugees and are now returning to rebuild
restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry After the fall of the Assad regime, tech workers are coming back to help rebuild their nation.

They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry
After the fall of the Assad regime, tech workers are coming back to help rebuild their nation.
restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

To Understand Erdogan's Turkey, Watch the Films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan says @kayagenc.bsky.social foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

"The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey" by @kayagenc.bsky.social. [5/5]

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

Thank you @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and Megan Dubois, my editors at @foreignpolicy.com, for bringing Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Dreamers and Cynics to readers:
foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

Yeni Türkiye’nin Hayalcileri ve Alaycıları. @foreignpolicy.com için Nuri Bilge Ceylan ve sinemasını yazdım: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

In recent months, the Turkish people have been asked to mind their own business as the Turkish government arrested Ekrem Imamoglu, whose politics of hope and social democratic ideals have run against the prevalent cynicism and opportunism of New Turkey. foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

In @foreignpolicy.com, I have an essay on Nuri Bilge Ceylan and “The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey”
foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...