- Ece Temelkuran, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow and award-winning novelist
"Dear stranger … Are you home? Do you feel at home? For how much longer?"
In her new book Nation of Strangers, currently shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Ece Temelkuran sets out on a moving search for meaning: What does home mean in a world where belonging is becoming fragile? Shaped by her own experiences of exile and inspired by encounters along the way, Temelkuran writes with tenderness and poetry, yet also with remarkable precision, about loss, estrangement, and the question of what connects us.
At Neuköllner Oper, Temelkuran’s text becomes the basis for a multi-voiced evening: Actress Agnes Mann reads from the book, while the musicians and performers Mara Snip, Melentini, and Nesrine Belmokh respond with their own texts, songs, and compositions. Afterwards, the artists will join Ece Temelkuran in conversation about their approaches to the themes explored during the evening, inviting the audience to reflect further on the questions raised. An evening weaving together reading, concert, and discussion – and an invitation to renegotiate the meaning of home.
Concept: Ece Temelkuran, Mick Besuch
Staging: Mick Besuch
funded by the Robert Bosch Academy of the Robert Bosch Stiftung
About the author
Ece Temelkuran is an acclaimed Turkish novelist, political thinker, and public speaker, and a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow. Her articles have been featured in several international media outlets, including the New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde. Temelkuran has received numerous awards for her work. Her novel, Women Who Blow On Knots, won the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book award, and her book Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy earned her the Ambassador Of New Europe Award. She also received the El Mundo Journalism Award for her collective body of work. Her book, How to Lose a Country. Together: A Manifesto Against the Heartless World, has gained international recognition and has been translated into multiple languages. In addition to her writing, she has held several prestigious fellowships. She was a visiting fellow at Saint Anthony's College, Oxford, and a fellow at The New Institute in Hamburg. She is also a member of the advisory boards for Progressive International and Democracy Next.