Ender Başkan, the people's poet

Writer Ender Başkan was blown away and broken apart by Alice Springs. His novel “Portrait of Alice As a Young Man” was written as he navigated the enormity of impending parenthood whilst living in the centre of Australia. His practice has now shifted fully into the enormity of parenthood, and towards poetry (as a Dad, he now has less time).

He grew up being fed books, but “not in literary surroundings”. He read widely and found fascination in philosophy and theory.

When pressed for advice he’d give his younger self, instead of clear answers and directions, his younger self was tenderly told… nothing. “You just have to go through it to know it.” Ender’s current self wouldn’t step in to play with fate, “I was feeling what I needed to feel”.

One clear gem of advice we eventually pulled from him was “Don’t ask for permission. Just do it. Make your work in any way you can.”

The word that came up repeatedly throughout our chat was “collectivity”, which means everything to Ender. He comes from a collectivist culture and is striving to humbly create that -not only with and for his family, but his wider community. There is a myth in Turkey that “If there’s a writer in the family, it’s a bad thing - all the secrets will get out”. We aligned more with what his father’s Imam believes: “A poet is very important, because they write our world into being”.

Ender shared his recipe for Yayla Corbasi, a Turkish yogurt soup, once a childhood favourite of his, and now a favourite of his kids too.

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.