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Sözen is a flow of words, texts, and languages. The focus is on Central Asian authors - on what matters to us through articles, translations, interviews and podcasts. We are interested in literary processes and in hearing a wide range of voices and works.
Sözen is a gentle steppe river that flows from one infinity beyond the horizon to another. Here, the river is the source of everything that surrounds us. It gives life to plants, insects and animals, it reflects people and stars, and birds nest on its banks. It is a silent force of diversity and polyphony of the steppe, preferring slow movement between infinities to the vanity of restrictions and conventions.
This river word, Sözen, reaches from the very beginning from the distant past - it takes on the vivid outlines of the present as long as it is in our field of vision, touch, feeling, hearing - and points to our future.
All forms of life, beings and matter will have space and resources on its shores, every voice will be heard, all can enter (or stay in) its refreshing waters to hear, see, feel, relate, comprehend, understand, realise, recognise or know.
Sözen is a gentle steppe river that flows from one infinity beyond the horizon to another. Here, the river is the source of everything that surrounds us. It gives life to plants, insects and animals, it reflects people and stars, and birds nest on its banks. It is a silent force of diversity and polyphony of the steppe, preferring slow movement between infinities to the vanity of restrictions and conventions.
This river word, Sözen, reaches from the very beginning from the distant past - it takes on the vivid outlines of the present as long as it is in our field of vision, touch, feeling, hearing - and points to our future.
All forms of life, beings and matter will have space and resources on its shores, every voice will be heard, all can enter (or stay in) its refreshing waters to hear, see, feel, relate, comprehend, understand, realise, recognise or know.
Steppe Space / Sözen
poetry and translations
interviews and podcasts
articles and research
prose and dramaturgy
poetry and translations
interviews and podcasts
articles and research
prose and dramaturgy
Programme text
One of the most important steps for us is to find a common language with it by establishing relations with the spiritual life in Central Asia. As part of the programme, interviews will be conducted with well-known figures of spirituality in Kazakhstan, and articles by literary scholars and critics will be published. We believe that this will open the door to a period when Kazakh literature will be united in one space and on the same wavelength. We believe that bringing bilingual translations into a bilingual space and introducing them to each other is the most successful way to bring them together.
One of our important tasks is to find opportunities for dialogue between the languages of Central Asia. As a first step, we have chosen to translate literary works by local authors into Kazakh and Russian.
One of our important tasks is to find opportunities for dialogue between the languages of Central Asia. As a first step, we have chosen to translate literary works by local authors into Kazakh and Russian.
Finding opportunities for dialogue between the linguistic environments of the region is an important task for us. Literary translations of local authors are the basic method we have chosen to initiate communication and reach the next levels of interaction. We hope that this will bring us closer together.
We want to explore issues of decolonisation and kinship, the influence and connections of related cultures. We consider it relevant to reflect on the impact of colonisation on the culture of neighbouring countries that have coexisted with us in the post-Soviet period.
Non-coloniality, youth, dialogue with neighbouring cultures, fusion, mutual influence and development are very important for us. In order for this dialogue to take place, it is very important to feel that we are a full-fledged inhabitant and not a small particle of the big world that still contributes to it. To this end, as part of our activities, we want to find and create a platform for local practices.
Non-coloniality, youth, dialogue with neighbouring cultures, fusion, mutual influence and development are very important for us. In order for this dialogue to take place, it is very important to feel that we are a full-fledged inhabitant and not a small particle of the big world that still contributes to it. To this end, as part of our activities, we want to find and create a platform for local practices.
We want to strengthen our neighbourhood and dialogue, to understand the mutual influence of literary practices through the ages and the decoloniality of identities today, interested in a common platform where we seek to recognise ourselves as holistic places rather than fragments of something larger and not our own.
In contemporary Kazakh poetry there are more and more Kazakh-language writers writing works of innovative direction. This can be investigated as one of the manifestations of Kazakh authors' transition to free thinking rather than being attached to traditional views.
In contemporary Kazakh literature right now, long-awaited paradigm shifts are taking place, established tradition is being criticized, new agendas and new literature are emerging.
We hope to be able to explore this process in depth and apply it successfully in our own experience. In the Sozen stream in particular, we have tried to support new authors by sharing new experiences and knowledge and by creating opportunities for publication.
We want to make sense of this process and contribute to it in our practices - supporting authors_ok, creating opportunities for publishing, gaining new experiences, sharing knowledge, in the Sozen stream.
mediators
Anuar Duisenbinov is a Kazakhstani poet, translator, and creative producer. He studied economics at the Eurasian National University in Astana and poetry at the Open Literary School of Almaty. Published in Russian-language online publications Liteggatura, Polutona, TextOnly, Soloneba, Articulation, DOXA, Esquire, Latvian Satori, Lithuanian Satenai, Polish Helikopter, English-language Asymptote, Kazakh-language The Bilge. He is a participant of the Kazakh festivals "Sөzyv", "Polyfonia", Astana Art Show, Go Viral, Bookfest, and festivals in Latvia - Dzejas Dienas and Dzejnieka Asinis. In 2017 he became the winner of the Big Almaty Slam. Anuar co-authored the spoken-word project "Balkhash Dreams" together with composer Rustem Myrzakhmetov. In 2022, the first collection of Duisenbinov's poems - "Rukhani Kangaroo" - was published in Almaty.
Poet, translator. Born in 1995 in Mungulkere district in Xinjiang. Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Al-Farabi KazNU, specializing in "Design". Translated into Kazakh works by Julio Cortasar, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Stearns Eliot, and articles by Western thinkers. He was the editor of the Kazakh section of the literary magazine "Tamyr". Published in the magazines Tamyr, Daktil, Sygma, Angime. Currently lives in Almaty.
