CONTRIBUTORS

Elif Sezen

Elif Sezen, born in Melbourne in 1981, grew up both here and in Izmir, Turkey. She settled in Melbourne in 2007. Also an interdisciplinary visual artist, she writes original poetry in English and in Turkish. In 2014 she published a Turkish translation of Ilya Kaminsky’s acclaimed book Dancing in Odessa; her own first work in Turkish, an experimental mix of poetry and prose Gece Düşüşü (‘Fall.Night.’) was published in 2012. Her collection of poems Universal Mother was recently published by GloriaSMH Press. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from Monash University.

Elif Sezen’s ‘Dear Immigrants’ and ‘The Turkish Bath’

I am reminded of Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth. For the work Salcedo broke a hairline crack into the floor of the Tate Gallery’s Turbine Hall. Running the sheer length of the hall, the crack broadened out to a crevasse of some feet. You walked alongside and gaped in. The floor was later repaired the cracks remain.

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The Turkish Bath | Hamam

Foamed, steamed, speechless ghosts — I, my grandmother and a few others — How nice, angels are more visible here. I feel more feminine, and all women start looking alike Is this a way to pay one’s account? To whom? …

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Dear Immigrants | Sevgili Göçmenler

From the purses of immigrants roll out candies like not-blessed eye balls, right in front of our feet. And just about to say Well Come, we rather remain silent as if ripping off the tree roots from its soil or …

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Our Night Afternoon

for Ebru You say ‘every noun is a gift as long as it trails its hollows’ So we swallow the day’s nouns: Melbourne Istanbul Salonico Ayvalık Bazaar Cat-eye Soap Pajamas We become the evening one by one we become the …

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Their Bodies | Onların Bedeni

Their Bodies are carved on ice – contemplation as water, once flowing towards another Antarctic as a ruin of holy residuals failing to become soulless and have failed to be consumed by inebriated modernizations. They were once Lemurians hypothetical root-race …

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