Zeynep Şen, who joined Hisar School in the 9th grade, graduated from Hisar High School in 2011.
Pursuing further education in Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Zeynep studied literature and creative writing while improving her Spanish which she had begun learning at Hisar. In her second year at university, she was among the 10 finalists in the translation contest organized by the British Council.
In her senior year, she started her internship at a literary agency, which became a turning point in her career. As an intern at the agency, she discovered new writers and talents and introduced them to readers. She turned this experience into a profession and for nearly a year she found new writers in the USA, worked as an editor on their books, and pitched them to various publishing houses. In 2017 she received a scholarship from American Literary Translators Association and in 2018 from Istanbul Fellowship.
Zeynep’s career goal is to prove herself as an excellent literary agent and offer valuable books to readers. She notes that the reading habit she acquired in Hisar is the biggest contributor to her passionate commitment to her profession. Our alumni is now back in Turkey and continues to work in Istanbul as a literary agent for the American WordLink Agency. The first book she represents in the agency is “Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War” by Erik Edstrom, released by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2020. Reviewed by the New York Times, the book is quite a popular one. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/books/review/un-american-erik-edstrom.html
Lately, she sold Doğan Kitap the rights of a children’s book written by Babazula’s vocalist Esma Ertel and illustrated by artist Mehmet Güleryüz. She suggested a music album by Grafson Plak to be released alongside the book. Following the book’s release in Turkey in October 2020, Zeynep aims to introduce it to readers and writers abroad. Some of the writers she works with are Olympic athletes, astronauts, quantum physicists, and ballerinas. Researching the most suitable publishing houses in the USA for their books, Zeynep arranges simultaneous publications of various writers in Mexico, Turkey, and in many other countries.
Our dear alumni Zeynep defines Hisar School as a home in which students discover and build on their passions, believing that they can turn them into what they want to do in life. We are very proud of her and wish her continued success on her literary journey.
