The first US poetry translation of an award-winning younger Turkish poet and controversial investigative journalist.
Translated with an Introduction by Deniz PerinEce Temelkuran is arguably Turkey's most accomplished young writer. Born 1973 in Turkey, she has published eight books of poetry, prose, and nonfiction. An award-winning daily columnist for Milliyet, she was 2008 Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In Book of the Edge, Temelkuran describes an allegorical journey wherein the speaker, or explorer, encounters strange creatures, including a butterfly, bull, swordfish, sow bug, and cruel city dwellers. These poems point to the undeniable connection between all living beings.
"In Book of the Edge, the three traditions of political poetry, Sufism, and shamanism coalesce to create a collection rife with life and death, body and spirit, serenity and chaos."
-- Kiyi Kitabi
"The book is, to use Baudelaire's words, an invitation to a voyage. The speaker asks the reader to become an explorer, to leave the city and embark upon a journey of self-discovery. Although each poem stands alone, the poems work together to describe this quest; they turn into a modern, poetic fable, in which speaker, explorer, and reader merge into one. 'You may not know it yet, ' says the speaker in the prologue, a wink at what is to come. 'You are just like me.'"
-- Deniz Perin, from the introduction
"The story itself is incredibly compelling. Because the allegories and metaphors are well grounded, the reader can focus less on exploring esoteric themes and are instead invited to lose themselves wholly in the tale of a journey of self discovery...It's a universal feeling of restlessness that draws the reader in."
-- Poetry International