Selin Kahramanoğlu is a Turkish-Canadian museum and archives professional, researcher, artist, and writer. Kahramanoğlu lives in York Region and Istanbul. From her website, her artist statement explains “My background as a first-generation Canadian of Turkish heritage fuels much of my inspiration. Loving two countries equally, but differently, I try to understand and balance an identity mixed with East and West. Through this lens and storytelling, my work touches on themes of loss, bicultural representation, memory, sense of belonging and community.”
Fiction
Lokum
Toronto: Rare Machines/Dundurn Press, 2026.
Forthcoming Feb. 2026.
Publisher’s Synopsis
After fifteen years away from the city, our narrator returns to their homeland of Istanbul the day before their sister’s wedding. Consumed by discontent and needing a new direction in life, our narrator searches for comfort as they wander the familiar districts of their beloved city. Along the way, they become acquainted with delightful strangers who each share their stories and enlighten the cloudy path back to our narrator’s authentic self.
This debut novel guides readers through the beauty of Turkish culture and celebrates how storytelling can provide us with the support to restore strength to our burdened spirit. Named after the Turkish delight candy, this sweet novel reminds us to lean on the power of our community to uplift and reorient us in times of difficulty.