Kıraathane’s latest anthology explores the notion of a new home
“Varmak”, a second anthology book as part of the Literature Beyond Borders project, compiles ten short stories written in six different languages.
18.03.2024
A second anthology book as part of the Literature Beyond Borders project was published by Kıraathane Kitapları, Kıraathane’s small printing press, earlier this year. Varmak, meaning “to arrive” in Turkish, was curated together with the literature houses of Oslo (Litteraturhuset), Berlin (Literarische Colloquium Berlin), and Diyarbakır (Wêjegeh Amed), and the Paul Celan Literature Center in Chernivtsi (Meridian Czernowitz).
This unique joint publication compiles ten short stories written in six different languages -Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Norwegian, Ukrainian, and Turkish- to shed light on the feeling of leaving home to find a new one. It features the authors Birgül Oğuz, Iryna Tsilyk, Gayyâs El-Medhûn, Yıldız Çakar, Priya Bains, Pedro Carmona-Álvarez, Fariba Vefi, Andriy Lübka, Yaqob Tilermenî, and Mehmet Yaşın. The publication fittingly follows the anthology Ev Ve or “Beyond Home,” which explored the idea of home as a place of belonging, security, and connection with one’s roots.
What does it mean to be forced to escape from home in the 21st century? What do people leave behind, and where does the road take them? What does it mean to be in exile as a migrant or a refugee in today’s Europe? What do people do when they find themselves in a constant state of transit, in a temporary order that becomes permanent? What can you do when you can’t leave home, or you aren’t able to return? And what does building a new life require? How can we aspire to live freely, peacefully, and as equals while preserving our differences?
Looking for a new home is often a quest for safety, freedom, or dignity —a moral journey as much as a physical one. The loss of the home, the physical place on earth where people’s roots are deeply embedded, may also be the harbinger of a better-suited one, a society, or a community of like-hearted individuals where one can truly blossom.
