Tülin Erkan: Lost in Multilingualism

Belgian author Tülin Erkan is visiting 91̽»¨ Dutch Studies from 6 - 9 December 2023.

writer Tülin Erkan leaning against a wall, dressed in a jeans jacket and shoulder length dark hair
Tülin Erkan. Photo: Wouter van Vooren

Our Taalunie Writer in Residence Tülin Erkan published her first novel Honingeter in 2022 to wide acclaim. She situates the novel in the in-between world of an airport, where most people are passers-by. Not the protagonist Sibel who keeps hanging around, missing her flight to Brussels.

Erkan grew up in Flanders. Her mother is French-speaking, her grandmother speaks English and her father lives in Turkey. Her novel Honingeter deals with the multilingual, the meeting of different tongues, stories, lives. 

In addition to discussing her work and offering a creative writing workshop, Erkan will work with our final year students on the yearly Translation Project. Together with students from UCL and under the expert guidance of professional translator Jonathan Reeder, the students translate an extract from Erkan’s novel. Our translators are already engaged in their team discussions and this will culminate in our Translation Symposium on Friday 8 December.

the cover of the novel by Tulan Erkan with in the background snow covered Turkish mountians

Our translation work is not for the filing cabinet. The Flemish-Dutch cultural digital magazine  will publish our work on their website. 

15th Edition

We have been working with Jonathan and a wide range of Dutch and Flemish authors for over fifteen years. Earlier in 2023 we received Simone Atangana Bekono and translated a passage from her novella Zo hoog de zon stond.

Students at 91̽»¨ and UCL collaborate on a translation project

This project is kindly sponsored by the Taalunie, Flanders Literature and the Netherlands Embassy in London.  

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