maallah: an exclamation meaning, “Wonderful!” or “May God protect you/him/her from evil!”
medrese: building or group of buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law, usually including a mosque; an important part of Ottoman architecture.
mevlit: celebration involving the chanting of “Mevlit,” a poem by Süleyman Çelebi celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, and passing out hard candy special to the occasion, usually held to celebrate an event or to commemorate the deceased.
meyhane: cross between a bar and a restaurant where mezes are served.
meze: food prepared in small portions (akin to tapas) to be savored with liqueur, primarily rakı.
muhtar: elected head of a neighborhood or village.
namaz: Islamic ritual of worship consisting of certain gestures, movements of the body, and prayers, performed five times a day.
pastırma: cured meat; first dried and then slathered with a cumin paste. It is found pretty much throughout the Middle East and Balkans, including Armenia and Greece. The word is said to be linguistically related to pastrami.
pide: generally flatbread, but comes also open-faced with a topping (akin to pizza) or filling (akin to a calzone).
rakı: the “national drink of Turks,” an anisette and licorice flavored liqueur (akin to Greek ouzo), which turns cloudy-white when mixed with water.
reis: skipper of a fishing boat, chief.
alvar: loose trousers.
simit: ring-shaped, crunchy, savory roll (somewhat akin to a pretzel), usually sprinkled with sesame seeds; a popular street snack in Turkey.
sucuk: spicy, garlicky sausage akin to chorizo.
tesbih: prayer beads, worry beads.
teyze: aunt, used also as a term of endearment and respect.
tulumba: dessert made by pouring dough from a pastry bag, frying and dunking in a sweet syrup (akin to zeppole). yorgan: comforter.
Zamzam: holy water from the Well of Zamzam located in the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
YASEMN AYDINOLU was born in zmir in 1968 and has a degree in Chemical Engineering. She is temporarily residing in New York. “One Among Us” is her first published story.
TARKAN BARLAS was born in 1970 in Istanbul, where he grew up, attending Saint-Benoît French School and the Istanbul University Department of Journalism and Public Relations. His short stories have been published in Varlık and Adam Öykü. He received the 2006 Everest Publications First Novel Award for his novel Lanetli Oda. His second book, Huzursuz Ruhlar, a story collection, was published in 2008. Barlas works as an advertising copywriter.
MEHMET BLL was born in 1962 in Istanbul. He studied sociology at Istanbul University and Germanics and Political Science at Stuttgart University. He has worked as a reporter and editor and is currently an advertising copywriter, scriptwriter, and songwriter. He is the author of two novels and a collection of essays on Turkish pop music.
BEHÇET ÇELK was born in 1968 in Adana, Turkey. He graduated from the Istanbul University Faculty of Law in 1990 and had his first short story published in Varlık in 1987. His stories, essays, and translations have been published in various publications. Editor for Virgül, a journal of literary criticism, Çelik is the author of five story collections, the most recent of which, Gün Ortasında Arzu (2007), won the prestigious Sait Faik Short Story Award.
NAN ÇETN was born in 1966. He has worked in libraries, bookstores, and the publishing industry. His first published short story appeared in Adam Öykü in 1995. Since then he has published literary criticism and essays, two story collections (Bin Yapraklı Lotus, 2003, and çimizdeki ato, 2005), and a novel (blisname: Bir Hayalin Gerçek Tarihi, 2007).
SMAL GÜZELSOY was born in 1963 in the town of Idır and grew up in Istanbul. His articles and stories have been appearing in literary journals since 1987. His first book, consisting of (in his own words) a series of “micro-novels,” was published in 2000. A second novel, Ruh Hastası, was published in 2004. More recently he has published a trilogy, the Banknot Üçlemesi. Güzelsoy still lives in Istanbul, where he has worked as a guide in the city and other regions of Turkey.
HKMET HÜKÜMENOLU was born in 1971 in Istanbul. His first novel, Kar Kuyusu, was published in 2005, and his second, Küçük Yalanlar Kitabı, in 2007. Hükümenolu also writes short stories and scripts, works as a translator, and dabbles in electronic music.
MÜGE PLKÇ was born and raised in Istanbul. She received the Yaar Nabi Nayır Award (for writers and poets under the age of thirty) in 1996 and a Haldun Taner Award in 1997. She is the author of four story collections and two novels, and is the editor of two works of nonfiction. plikçi is currently the chairperson of the Turkey PEN Women Writers’ Committee.
RIZA KIRAÇ was born in 1970 in Istanbul, where he grew up. He studied cinema at Dokuz Eylül and Marmara Universities and has worked as director, assistant director, and writer for documentaries, commercials, and TV programs. His short films and documentaries have been shown at various national and international festivals. His stories have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. He is also the author of two story collections and four novels.
LYDIA LUNCH continues to bitch, moan, insult, attack, purr, and squeal thirty years after her initial outburst. Her exhibitionist tendencies are manifested in the written, spoken, or sung word, through photography and film, and most often in live performance. Her first book, Paradoxia: A Predator’s Diary, was published by Akashic in 2007. In 2009, Akashic will publish her next book, Will Work for Drugs.
JESSICA LUTZ was born in the Netherlands in 1962 and moved to Istanbul in 1989. She works as a reporter for various Dutch media as well as CBS radio, U.S. News and World Report, and BBC radio. She has written two books: De Gouden Appel (2002), about modern Turkey, and Gezichten van Istanbul (2008), about Istanbul. A short story of hers was published in Tales from the Expat Harem (2005).
BARI MÜSTECAPLIOLU was born in 1977 in zmit-Kocaeli. He is the author of Turkey’s first fantasy fiction series, the four-volume The Legends of Perg, as well as the novel akird. His most recent work is an ongoing series of illustrated children’s books and he is currently writing a novel that will be published in 2009. Müstecaplıolu has also been working as a human-resources specialist in various firms for the past eight years.
ALGAN SEZGNTÜRED was born in 1968 and works as an author, graphic designer, painter, and translator. He has two published detective novels, Katilin eyi (2006) and Katilin Meselesi (2007). Both novels feature the handsome, charming knucklehead Vedat and his partner, short, squat Tefo, the brains of the crime-busting duo.
AMY SPANGLER is a native of small-town Ohio and moved to Istanbul upon graduation from college in 1999. She still lives in the elusive and amorphous Istanbul, where she works as translator, agent, and editor. She is the translator of Asli Erdogan’s novel The City in Crimson Cloak (Soft Skull, 2007) and coowner of AnatoliaLit Literary and Copyright Agency (www.anatolialit.com).
FERYAL TLMAÇ was born in 1969, in Adana, Turkey and studied Economics at Boaziçi University. Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous literary magazines in Turkey. She is the author of the story collection Mevt Tek Hecelik Uyku (Okuyan Us Publishing, 2007) and won the Altkitap Short Story Prize in 2006. She lives in Istanbul.
SADIK YEMN was born in Istanbul and has resided in Amsterdam since 1975. His writing combines myriad genres and styles: detective fiction, drama, paranormal, horror, science fiction, metaphysics, and humor. He is the author of nine novels published in Turkish, as well as a variety of short stories, essays, plays, and film scripts.
MUSTAFA ZYALAN was born on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. He worked as a general doctor and coroner in a rural Anatolian village and now lives and practices psychiatry in New York. He has worked with torture victims, prison inmates, delinquent children, pathological gamblers, and people with AIDS. His poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in many literary periodicals, anthologies (m
ost recently in New European Poets from Graywolf Press), and books.
Also available from the Akashic Books Noir Series
PARIS NOIR
edited by Aurélien Masson
300 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
All original stories from Paris’ finest authors, all translated from French.
Brand new stories by: Didier Daeninckx, Jean-Bernard Pouy, Marc Villard, Chantal Pelletier, Patrick Pécherot, DOA, Hervé Prudon, Dominique Mainard, Salim Bachi, Jérôme Leroy, and others.
Paris Noir takes you on a ride through the old medieval center of town with its intertwined streets, its ghosts, and its secrets buried in history … But Paris Noir is not only an homage to the crime genre, to Melville and Godard, it’s also an invitation to French fiction.
ROME NOIR
edited by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski
300 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
Groundbreaking collection of original stories, all translated from Italian.
Brand new stories by: Antonio Scurati, Carlo Lucarelli, Gianrico Carofiglio, Diego De Silva, Giuseppe Genna, Marcello Fois, Cristiana Danila Formetta, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, and others.
From Stazione Termini, immortalized by Roberto Rossellini’s films, to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s desolate beach of Ostia, and encompassing famous landmarks and streets, this is the sinister side of the Dolce Vita come to life, a stunning gallery of dark characters, grotesques, and lost souls seeking revenge or redemption in the shadow of the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, Trastevere, the quiet waters of the Tiber, and Piazza Navona. Rome will never be the same.
BROOKLYN NOIR
edited by Tim McLoughlin
350 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
*Winner of Shamus Award, Anthony Award, Robert L. Fish Memorial Award; finalist for Edgar Award, Pushcart Prize.
Brand new stories by: Pete Hamill, Arthur Nersesian, Ellen Miller, Nelson George, Nicole Blackman, Sidney Offit, Ken Bruen, and others.
“Brooklyn Noir is such a stunningly perfect combination that you can’t believe you haven’t read an anthology like this before. But trust me— you haven’t. Story after story is a revelation, filled with the requisite sense of place, but also the perfect twists that crime stories demand. The writing is flat-out superb, filled with lines that will sing in your head for a long time to come.”
—Laura Lippman, winner of the Edgar, Agatha, and Shamus awards
LOS ANGELES NOIR
edited by Denise Hamilton
360 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
*A Los Angeles Times best seller and winner of an Edgar Award.
Brand new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Héctor Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Neal Pollack, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, and others.
“Akashic is making an argument about the universality of noir; it’s sort of flattering, really, and Los Angeles Noir, arriving at last, is a kaleidoscopic collection filled with the ethos of noir pioneers Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
HAVANA NOIR
edited by Achy Obejas
360 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
Brand new stories by: Leonardo Padura, Pablo Medina, Carolina García-Aguilera, Ena Lucía Portela, Miguel Mejides, Arnaldo Correa, Alex Abella, Moisés Asís, Lea Aschkenas, and others.
“A remarkable collection … Throughout these 18 stories, current and former residents of Havana—some well-known, some previously undiscovered—deliver gritty tales of depravation, depravity, heroic perseverance, revolution, and longing in a city mythical and widely misunderstood.” —Miami Herald
TRINIDAD NOIR
edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason
340 pages, trade paperback original, $15.95
Brand new stories by: Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Lawrence Scott, Oonya Kempadoo, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Kevin Baldeosingh, elisha efua bartels, Tiphanie Yanique, Willi Chen, and others.
“For sheer volume, few—anywhere—can beat [V.S.] Naipaul’s prodigious output. But on style, the writers in the Trinidadian canon can meet him eye to eye … Trinidad is no one-trick pony, literarily speaking.” —Coeditor Lisa Allen-Agostini in the New York Times
These books are available at local bookstores.
They can also be purchased online through www.akashicbooks.com.
To order by mail send a check or money order to:
AKASHIC BOOKS
PO Box 1456, New York, NY 10009
www.akashicbooks.com, [email protected]
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Istanbul Noir Page 24