Selen Ozturk is a San Francisco-based writer born in Istanbul. Her writing appears in Evergreen Review, Necessary Fiction, Hobart, SF Chronicle, and SFGATE. She has received support from Bread Loaf, Grub Street, and The Writers Grotto. She holds a philosophy degree from UC Berkeley and works as a journalist.

ozturkselen (at) gmail.com

prose

forthcoming: Ghost City Review, minor literature[s], Split Lip, Archetype, Eunoia Review

a story about fishing, gold, murder in Necessary Fiction (2024)

a story about honesty in Hobart (2024)

a story about a man, his vomiting dog, and a woman in Hobart (2024)

an ode to Sea Ranch, California in Where Meadows (2024)

Rosa Bonheur essay in The Oxonian Review (2022)

an essay about the Rothko Chapel in Bayou Magazine (2022)

more Rothko Chapel in Wilderness House Literary Review (2022)

essay about ecology/architecture/dictatorship in Arcosanti, Arizona for Archetype (2022)

an essay about Bernard Maybeck and the Palace of Fine Arts in Synchronized Chaos (2022)

poetry

forthcoming: Sport Literate

three poems in Evergreen Review (2024)

three translations of Provencal troubadour poet Arnaut Daniel in La Piccioletta Barca (2024)

two poems about Sea Ranch and San Francisco in California Quarterly (2024)

a poem in Haight Ashbury Literary Journal (2024, print)

poems in Ginosko (2024)

poems in MONDAY (2021)

misc

a short movie about the long-term benefits of psychopathy in the corporate world, Official Selection of the Sacramento International Film Festival and nominated for the IMDB qualifying competition of the LA Independent Women Film Awards (2024)

quoted, covered, interviewed in Verso, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cinema Retro, bivoulab, Study Hall

reportage

ongoing true stories on everything from geopolitics to Harry Belafonte for Ethnic Media Services, a nationwide newswire for community media; some include ADA lawsuit fraud in San Francisco, diaspora Turks after the 2023 earthquake, Dolly Parton bestowing books upon California’s children, migratory grief for the eternal refugee, Bay Area housing gaps, adding 1 million years of life expectancy to LA County by greening it, fighting extreme heat in California’s hottest county, and affordable housing milestones in California (2022 – )

two plays reviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle (2023)

ripping up the pavement and greening California’s schoolyards for SFGATE / Bay City News (2023)

Maya Deren, ’70s eco-horror, early CGI, how The Monkees birthed New Hollywood, and Turksploitation cinema for Bright Lights Film Journal (2022 – 2024)

city reporter for the Piedmont Post and Bay Area local papers (2022 – 2023)

arts reporter for The Daily Californian (2022)

writing about movies, music, and books for PopMatters (2022)

writing on art for Whitewall including San Francisco exhibition reviews; a Friday art world party column; international exhibitions like the Venice Biennale, the Recontres d’Arles, Paris Mens’ Fashion Week, and Milan Mens’ Fashion Week; the burgeoning NFT and VR beat; and interviews with artists like Tourmaline, Milagros, Brett Cook, Koen Vanmechelen, Nicolas Bourriaud, Ahmet Güneştekin, and Ignasi Monreal (2022)

two 1970 student protest films for Senses of Cinema (2022)

reviewing Bill McKibben and Barry Lopez for Stone Pier Press (2022)


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