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Elif Sezen Elif Sezen i(A152240 works by)
Born: Established: 1981 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 1 y separately published work icon A Little Book of Unspoken History Elif Sezen , Waratah : Puncher and Wattmann , 2018 17178096 2018 selected work poetry

'In A little book of unspoken history, Elif Sezen navigates physical and metaphysical spheres, conjuring multilayered historical and imaginative narratives.

'Memories of domestic disruption act as a point of departure in these poems, with the poet traveling through time, greeting souls in existential landscapes, illuminating extremity in inner and outer worlds, pivoting between vulnerability and strength, the sayable and the unsayable.

'Sezen’s language charts an ethereal personal odyssey. Her constant metaphors of remembering and forgetting unfold as an existential mystical journey linking biographical and imaginative tellings.' (Publication summary) 
1 A Thousand-Petal Woman i "Who am I now?", Elif Sezen , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Hope for Whole : Poets Speak up to Adani 2018; (p. 104-105)
1 Our Night Afternoon i "You say", Elif Sezen , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 57 2017;
1 Elif Sezen’s ‘Dear Immigrants’ and ‘The Turkish Bath’ Paul Magee , Elif Sezen , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 57 2017; 'I am reminded of Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth. For the work Salcedo broke a hairline crack into the floor of the Tate Gallery’s Turbine Hall. Running the sheer length of the hall, the crack broadened out to a crevasse of some feet. You walked alongside and gaped in. The floor was later repaired the cracks remain. So Elif Sezen’s ‘we / rather remain silent / as if ripping off the tree roots from its soil’. The effects of these words are quieter. But there’s a rent in the language of our familiar utterance – shouldn’t it be ‘ripping up’? – all the same. We rip off when deceiving others of their rightful share. And we find ourselves ripping tree roots off the soil in lands where there’s little for our plantations to take hold of. It’s dusty and even inimical to those with little history there, the rip-off merchants who in the state of Victoria, for instance, pioneered for the future nation the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families. The example spread, but the city of Melbourne is particularly built on it.' (Introduction)
1 1 The Turkish Bath i "Foamed, steamed, speechless", Elif Sezen , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 57 2017;
1 1 Dear Immigrants Sevgili Göçmenler i "From the purses of immigrants roll out candies", Elif Sezen , 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 57 2017;
1 Immunosuppression i "Unconsoled body postures", Elif Sezen , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry 2016; (p. 43)
1 4 y separately published work icon Universal Mother Elif Sezen , Australia : GloriaSMH , 2016 10039530 2016 selected work poetry

'In Universal Mother, Elif Sezen braids the intersections of domestic histories and spiritual evolution. She navigates the large themes: complementary concepts of separation and homecoming, visible and invisible, eternity and temporality, love and grief, irony and melancholy.

'The world these poems conjure is one of imagination and mystical longing. The poet’s mother and the poet herself, as feminine, are the departure point for the persona in these poems, journeying haunted and at times ecstatic through surprising venues and occasions.

'As myth-making for a self, and as social understanding, Elif Sezen’s imagery in this book bridges the personal and the collective, in a special sense. Reflecting upon her own transcultural identity, this work carries itself across boundaries between East and West.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
1 Their Bodies i "are carved on ice – contemplation", Elif Sezen , 2014 single work poetry
— Appears in: Spoon Bending : A Chapbook Curated by Kent MacCarter Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May no. 46.0 2014;
1 The Night is Pregnant i "They… guards of a familiar earth", Elif Sezen , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Wonder Book of Poetry , January 2013;
1 The Wish i "Whose face is this?", Elif Sezen , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Love Poems 2013 2013; (p. 258)
1 The Meditation i "i", Elif Sezen , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: Sotto , March 2013;
1 The City of Pierrots i "Your hope is the tendency to heal", Elif Sezen , 2013 single work poetry
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 1 November vol. 23 no. 21 2013; (p. 42-43)
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