Zeynep Özakat

Zeynep Özakat was born and raised Juniper Summer Writing Institute, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a 2021-2022 Writing Fellow. She has taught creative writing courses through Syracuse University, and most recently, The Center for Fiction in Istanbul, Turkey. She holds an undergraduate degree from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, where she received The Shirley Jackson Prize in Fiction, The Leonard Brown Prize in Poetry, and a Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work. Her writing has appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, where she won the Fiction Open Contest, in Black Warrior Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Gulf Coast Online. She has received scholarships and support from The Disquiet Conference in Lisbon, The Bread Loaf Environmental Writing Conference, Thin Brooklyn.