The Official Version
Defne is an Istanbulite writer.
Her historical novel, “Melankolik Cinler Kılavuzu,” tells the story of a haunted library and the first female alchemist of the Ottoman Empire (Istanbul: İthaki, 2024). Her second book is a Jungian creative writing manual, “Sıdıka Hanım’ın Büyüleri: Bilinçaltına İnmek için 30 Yaratıcı Yazı Egzersizi” (Istanbul: Pinhan, 2025). Her third book, “Ansuz,” is a collection of feminist fairy tales from the periphery in three Languages: Turkish, English, and Spanish (Barcelona: Voces del Ciempiés, 2025).
& the Meandering One …
I was born in the midst of the Mediterranean, on beautiful and divided Cyprus, lived in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Germany, Morocco, Belgium, Scotland, Argentina, Hungary, the United States and currently divide my time between Istanbul and Barcelona.
I have a BA and MA in Continental Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, where I won the Gillian Purvis Award for New Writing. My work is represented by Howard Morhaim of Howard Morhaim Literary Agency Inc., New York.
My slow, fairy tale books, “Sen, Ben ve Bütün Canavarlar,” “Þórdís, Bana Bir Fal Bakar mısın?” and “Galata’nın Kıvırcık Cadısı,” were published in Turkish and by The Poet House in 2023, 2022, 2021 respectively. They form an illustrated Trilogy of Witches where I focus on sorceresses who live at the peripheries, outside the European center. My bilingual art book collaboration, “Misafir*Hane / Guest*house,” was published in 2019 by Mas Matbaa and tells the story of a real life Istanbulite shelter for trans individuals, LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees. It won the Cultural Renovations Fund of the Netherlands Consulate General in Istanbul.
I have also edited one book in Turkish and co-edited three books in English. Kendimi Buldum: Arketiplerle Dönüşüm by Selmin Gök is a book about Jungian archetypes and how we can use them to transform our lives (Nova Kitap, 2024). Miscellaneous: Writing Inspired by the Hunterian is a collection of poems, essays and stories about the collections of the Hunterian Museum (The Hunterian, 2014), New Fairy Tales: Essays and Stories was a hybrid book of academic essays and creative exemplars of newly written anti-tales (Unlocking Press, 2013) Tip Tap Flat: A View of Glasgow is an anthology of creative writing and graphic art inspired by the city from the staff and students of the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow (Freight, 2012). I was also first the fiction editor, then the editor-in-chief of Unsettling Wonder: a Journal of Folk and Fairy Tales (Papaveria Press, 2012-2017).
My short stories have appeared in New Writing Scotland, Gutter, Glasgow Review of Books, Awham, Lunate, Fractured West, Milk Candy Review, and Visual Verse among others. I was Writer in Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in New Mexico, and at the Hunterian Museums in Glasgow where I researched, wrote and conducted creative writing workshops on the un-exhibited parts of the collection. In 2018, I was a Research Excellence Fellow at Central European University. I also worked as lecturer in Comparative Literature at Koç University, as well as a Creative Writing tutor at Gebze Women’s Prison, at Kırmızı Kalem Edebiyat Akademi, the Walrus Bookshop in Buenos Aires, the Scottish Universities International Summer School in Edinburgh and Mumuki + Ciempiés Talleres, a feminist cooperative in Barcelona. I was also a Helen Gartner Hammer Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, and then a Research Fellow at the same institution. (2019-2021)
During the pandemic I fell in love with the intricate work of Carl Gustav Jung and became a certified Jungian coach through Dr. Avi Goran Bar’s Jungian Coaching School.
You can find more information about my published work, art, and projects on this website.
Defne Çizakça 