19/12/2024 | Writer: Kaos GL
19th Women to Women Story Contest Awards were presented at a ceremony on December 13th.
The award ceremony of the 19th Women to Women Story Contest organized by Kaos GL was held on Friday, December 13th at Frankeştayn Bookstore in Istanbul. Stories of women*s struggle, love and solidarity were awarded at the award ceremony.
The award ceremony started with the welcome speech of jury member and Kaos GL Academy and Cultural Studies Program Coordinator Aylime Aslı Demir. Demir talked about the history of the contest and emphasized that the Women to Women Story Contest has been providing a space where women can safely tell their stories for 19 years.
The winning stories and their authors are as follows:
First Prize The People Inside Me - ChinaBird
Second Prize Cave of Whispers - Badem
Third Prize Between Tulles - Ayça Keskin
Special Awards:
Imane Khalef Special Award: As if Destroyed by Lightning - Adele Tsumake
Ahoo Daryaei Special Award for Rebellion: Where We Want to Be - Night
Rita Mae Brown Special Award: Faded Begonias - Sidem Samsun
The winning authors received their awards from jury members Sema Kaygusuz, Umut Tümay Arslan, Aylime Aslı Demir and artist Gözde İlkin.
Adele Tsumake talked about her return to writing after years with the following words:
"I started writing in primary school because I had difficulty expressing myself by speaking. After high school, there was a long period of time when I stopped writing, about 10-15 years. In fact, when I turned 30, my need to write started to nudge me again. When I remembered how much writing empowered me in my childhood and adolescence, I wanted to make room for it in my life again. Kaos GL is a familiar and safe space for this desire, so the Women to Women Story Contest was a very good space for me to step into stories again. The fact that this first step found a response was very encouraging and hopeful for me. I would like to thank the Kaos GL team for listening to our stories."
Ayça Keskin talked about the development process of her story as follows:
"My relationship with writing is a relationship that has managed to turn into a deep and continuous one after I left Istanbul. Before, there were frequent interruptions. In my eyes, this story is a text that has evolved many times, has grown by adding something to it each time, and was written based on a very short moment."
Badem described writing as a “journey of remembering” and said:
"In a room of my own, I had words I wrote to remember my queer identity. Because just like in my story, I was born among people whose authentic existence had been forgotten and I had forgotten who I was, who I found love in. But again, just like in my story, my heart didn't listen, the Aslı of my own story reminded me who I was. For me, writing was a journey of remembering in this room. On the days I locked myself in that room, my words decided to run away from this competition. I was excited by the prospect of my words existing in the eyes of the writers I love so much, so I let them run away from home. I'm glad they raised the flag of rebellion."
“I didn't know I could jump that high”
ChinaBird shared the inspiration for her first prize winning story with the following words:
"The lyrics and the music of Patti Smith's song ‘China Bird’, which makes you feel compassionate and encouraging to someone who cannot live freely, affected me a lot. When I wrote my first story and sent it to Kaos GL's Rainbow Forum, thanks to Aslı Alpar, I was very happy when she told me that she liked my story and that I could send other stories. With that happiness and surprise, I chose the pseudonym 'ChinaBird' for myself. The theme of last year's contest seemed like a very good assistant to me and my story 'Dream', in which I told the struggle of a trans lesbian woman protagonist to exist, won the prize. I didn't know I could jump that high, and in this year's contest, my story 'The People Inside Me' won first prize. I would like to thank Aylime Aslı Demir for organizing the Women to Women Story Contest, Aylime Aslı Demir, everyone who contributed to the organization of the contest, all the jury members, and the Kaos GL team for reminding me of the limitlessness of dreaming and allowing me to realize my dreams."
“Writing a story is one of the most democratic moves in the world”
Jury member Sema Kaygusuz mentioned that writing a story is both a personal and a social act and made the following statements:
"Writing a story is one of the most democratic moves in the world. Because you can only accept to equalize the other person with a story. It is from the very lungs, from the heart. It has its own hormones, its own secretions, its own stink, fears, darkness and absurdity. Humor, irony, when you look at their origins they are secretions, like the fluids we spit out when we make a joke.
This contest is an opportunity to go back to what you left behind, to re-enter the cave. I hope those who have stopped writing will also write again. A young writer, a poet is still waiting where writing calls us. This contest opens a space to heed that call. Thank you all. Greetings to all the participants who trusted us and submitted their stories. I wish you many more years of writing, many more years of reading."
The award ceremony ended with a group photo shoot. Frankeştayn Bookstore was thanked for hosting the event and Kaos GL team greeted all the writers and jury members once again.
Tags: women, media, arts and culture
1720430400.jpg)