Zafer Senocak
2000 Max Kade Writer-in-residence
Zafer Senocak was born in 1961 in Ankara, Turkey, and has lived primarily in Berlin and Munich since 1970. A widely published poet, essayist, journalist, editor, and novelist, Senocak has become a leading voice in German discussions of national and cultural identity.
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He has published numerous volumes of poetry, essays and short stories, and his works have been included
in several anthologies. His essays and articles often address Turkish-German issues and confront problems of
multiculturalism in Germany. He collaborates on regular basis with several German newspapers and magazines:
Die Tageszeitung, S¸ddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, Wochenpost. In 1988 he founded Sirene, a literary magazine
featuring works in many languages.
His works have been translated into Turkish, English, French, Dutch, Greek, and Hebrew. His Atlas of a
Tropical Germany: Essays on Politics and Culture, 1990-1998 (Trans. Leslie Adelson) will soon appear from
the University of Nebraska Press.
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Awards and Grants:
Senocak has won several prestigious literary awards in Germany. In
1984 he was awarded the City of Munich Literary Prize for his first
poetry collection Elektrisches Blau. In 1988 he was awarded the
Adalbert von Chamisso F–rderpreis of the Bavarian Academy of the
Arts.
Senocak has also received numerous grants and invitations
to lecture and teach at diverse institutions. During the months of March
and April 1996, he was writer-in-residence at the Universities of Miami
at Oxford, and in June and August of the same year he was writer-in-residence
at Villa Aurora, (Pacific Palisades, California).
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