Bejan Matur
(Turkey, 1968) is of Kurdish descent. In 2011 Dağın Ardına Bakmak (Looking Behind the Mountain) appeared, for which she took to the mountains to interview PKK rebels, the first time a writer sketched the personal stories and traumas of the Kurdish fighters. In 2011 Doğunun Kapısı: Diyarbakır (The Gate of the East: Diyarbakir) also appeared, a portrait of the 3000 year old capital of Kurdistan. As a columnist for the English language newspaper Zaman Matur writes regularly about the Kurdish question. In addition she chairs the Diyarbakır Cultural Art Foundation. She also leads social projects for women, children and adolescents and makes a tv-programme on culture, art and politics. She read law at the University of Ankara. Since the publication of her first book of poetry in 1996, Rüzgâr Dolu Konaklar (Wind-Filled Countryhouses) she has created her own mythology - inspired by age-old Sufi traditions from the region of her birth. Meanwhile she has six books of poetry to her name and an anthology with poems she translated. Her work has been translated in seventeen languages.
Past events
Poetry and Politics
Joumana Haddad and Bejan Matur: a Lebanese and a Turkish writer, who, apart from being a poet and a writer are also concerned columnists. A conversation hosted by Bram Vermeulen on their work, their political stand and literary commitment. In English.
Writers reading
Bejan Matur and Dinaw Mengestu read their work, introduced by Nicole Terborg. In English.
VPRO De Avonden
In the square in front of the theatre there is De Kas. The whole evening Jeroen van Kan talks with writers at the festival for the VPRO radio programme De Avonden Live. Visitors are allowed to peek freely and listen in. In Dutch and English.
21.17: Bernice Chauly
21.35: Ghalia Benali
22.05: Bejan Matur
22.15: Rodaan Al Galidi and Chika Unigwe
22.35: Nazmiye Oral and Kader Abdolah
