Q&A Nermin Mollaoglu


A passion for spreading the word, and words, of Turkish writers has seen Kalem Agency founder


Nermin Mollaoglu amass an enviable reputation. Ahead of LBF, she met Tom Tivnan


tom tivnan You are up for Agent of the Year at the LBF International Excellence Awards. Can you go through the past year or so, and explain why you think you have been shortlisted? nermin mollaoglu You can’t imagine my reaction when I saw the shortlist! It was quite a big surprise for me. I have been in this business for 15 years, and we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kalem Agency during the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. We have come a long way in 10 years. Representing Turkish literature abroad used to be an unknown issue; there


were only 300 [foreign rights] deals before Kalem Agency, but now I represent 150 authors, [and titles] ranging from classics to contemporary. Turkish authors are being published in Mongolian, Danish, Arabic… Being the “ambassador” of my culture is my fundamental mission—creating a culture bridge through literature is what I put my heart into. Therefore, we started the Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival (ITEF), which has hosted 450 authors in nine years and introduced Turkish publishing through the ITEF Fellowship Programme. I have to say that I could not have been


Unsung Turks 20 14th March 2017


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