Sener Ozmen, The Competition of Unfinished Stories. Translated by Nicholas Glastonbury. Sandorf Passage, 2025. 240 pages.

At the next meeting of the Kurdish Book Club, we’ll be discussing The Competition of Unfinished Stories by Sener Ozmen. The book is available in both print and electronic formats. Here is the publishers’s webpage.

Sener Ozmen, a writer, new media artist, and filmmaker, is an exciting contemporary voice in Kurdish culture. While living in Istanbul in the 1990s and Diyarbakir in the 2000s, he developed dissident contemporary art practices. His writings on Kurdish identity and nationalism, as well as on the production of art in conflict zones, have been published in numerous international magazines and newspapers. His short films and video works have been screened at the Centre Pompidou, Stedelijk Museum, and Kunsthalle Fridericianum. He currently lives in Wilmette, Illinois.

The Competition of Unfinished Stories is his English-language debut novel.

Synopsis: In Bakur (Turkish Kurdistan), Sertac tries to finish the stories he has started writing. Meanwhile he teaches theology classes at an Islamic school, which is frustrating because he is an ardent atheist. As his frustrations mount, his marriage falls apart, untethering him from reality. A throng of eclectic, larger-than-life characters inhabit the madness that haunts Sertac. This darkly coming and profoundly moving novel shows the schizophrenia and emasculation brought about by life under colonial occupation.

Every March, the NYKCC celebrates Kurdish Heritage Month, with a range of cultural activities. The Book Club will hold its March meeting in person in New York City, as part of the Kurdish Heritage Month events. A Zoom option will be available to accommodate those who are unable to attend in person.

We’ll share further details regarding the location, date, and time soon.

Details:
Book:The Competition of Unfinished Stories
Date: in March;; date TBA
Time: 7pm ET (New York time)
Where: in person and Zoom