Literaturk Festival to be held in october

The Turkish-German Literature Festival Literaturk, which is annually organized in Germany's Essen and is first of its kind in the country, will be organized this year between Oct. 1 and 9. The festival was launched on Sept. 10 at a press conference, attended by Literaturk Festival General Coordinator Semra Uzun-Onder, organizer Fatma Uzun, Johannes Brackmann, Andreas Goldberg and Cem Senturk of the Turkish Research Foundation (TAM), which supports the festival. The festival will take place in Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund, along with Essen, with the participation of many renowned figures from Turkey and Germany. The event will open on Oct. 1 with a presentation by famous poet and writer Murathan Mungan. Poet Gulten Akin will also read her poems and on the seventh day of the festival, journalist-writer Can Dundar will talk about Gezi Park events in Essen. Mirza Odabasi, Frank Sundermeyer, Alper Caniguz, Murat Gulsoy, Lutfiye Guzel, Gerrit Wustmann and Tanil Bora will be other guests of the nine-day festival. General Coordinator Semra Uzun-Onder said the "literary winds would blow in different venues of the Ruhr Basin," and invited all literary lovers in the region to the event. Literaturk was first organized in 2005 and has so far hosted many representatives of Turkish and German culture and literature in 99 events, with the number of festival attendees increasing every year. It is a platform to make a contribution to relations between the two societies through culture and literature. One of the goals of the festival is to create a platform for young talents to make their voices heard. Further information about the festival can be reached at www.literatuerk.com.