by Sabrina Jaszi and Ena Selimović

At a time when we are experiencing all the flux of relocation, parenthood, death and loss, commitment to new places and futures, it is a comfort to see through the fourth issue of Turkoslavia, a solid milestone in the journal’s life and a promise for its future. Though it feels strange, in this time of imperial violence and hypernationalism, to even attempt to create something that fosters a sense of shared history and culture, we view this issue as a salve and a form of resistance. 

Issue 4 features almost as many languages as there are pieces: Bulgarian, Eastern Armenian, Hungarian, Kosovar Gorani, Mongolian, Polish, Romanian, and Uzbek spread across nine pieces—six poetry and three prose. In contrast with our last issue, which featured many different “Russians,” this issue had none, allowing space for a host of languages we’d never read from before. Most of the contributions are contemporary, a change from previous issues. Alongside them are a few works from the first half of the twentieth century and earlier that nonetheless speak to the politics of the newer ones. We were happy to reunite with many returning writers and translators—including Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Denis Ferhatović, Hamid Ismailov, Rob Myatt, and Marina Sofia—and to welcome new ones whose work we’ve admired from a distance. 

As writers and translators of prose, we never expected to play such an active role in editing and promoting poetry, but we’re grateful to be entrusted with these pieces and leaned heavily on Selma Asotić, our guest poetry editor. About our work together, Selma reflected: “It’s a cliché to say that translation is an impossible art, but every time I read or edit translated texts I have to proclaim anew—this is impossible! And yet, it happens. These poems speak to us of grief, desire, and rebellion. What I like most is their refusal to offer resolutions or comfort us with false hope. The despair you find in them is luxurious. But so is a sense of irony which reminds us that something always survives. Oh, to spend the rest of my afternoons with the Turkoslavia Collective, reading poetry out loud and agonizing over every word choice as if it could reveal why the universe keeps humming its sad, silly little tune. It would be a life well lived.” 

We came across the work of Farangiz Yusupova through Macaulay Honors College’s Central Asia Futures Conference organized by Zohra Saed, guest poetry editor for Issue 2. Farangiz’s textured pieces added a new dimension to the issue’s luxurious despair, to borrow Selma’s description. Farangiz had this to say about her process of creating the graphics for Issue 4: “Working on them was organic, meaning it didn't feel that different from my own artmaking process. I would read each text and write quick words that came to mind. At that time, I had begun making my own paper in Berlin. Upon arriving back to NYC, I scanned all the paper pieces and started to play with color and digitally alter them based on the feelings from each text.”

We hope you enjoy Issue 4, and we remain grateful to everyone who made it possible: Elena Alexieva, Selma Asotić, Ági Bori, Yeghishe Charents, Adrian Diniș, Yana Ellis, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Denis Ferhatović, Kip Hutchins, Hamid Ismailov, Lkhagvasüren Lamjav, Jacob Mikanowski, Arakel Minassian, Rob Myatt, Sergiusz Piasecki, Jessica Pískatá, Marina Sofia, Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, Miklós Vámos, Farangiz Yusupova, and whoever gave us the treasure that is “Someone Asked for Maiden Ilinka’s Hand.”

ABOUT THE GUEST POETRY EDITOR SELMA ASOTIĆ

Selma Asotić is a bilingual poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her poems and essays have appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, EuropeNow, The Well Review, Barricade, Calvert Journal, and elsewhere. She won second place in the 2019 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize. She also received a Pushcart nomination for her poem “Nana.” Her debut poetry collection Reci vatra was released in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in 2022. It won the 2022 Stjepan Gulin Prize for best poetry collection in BiH, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, as well as the 2023 Štefica Cvek regional prize. The Macedonian translation was released in 2023. The English and German editions are forthcoming from Archipelago and Suhrkamp. She holds an MFA degree from Boston University and is currently pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

ABOUT THE GRAPHIC ARTIST

Farangiz Yusupova is an artist whose work explores ideas of cultural dissonance, home, and space through painting. Born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Farangiz immigrated to the U.S. in 2014. She holds a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her work was exhibited in numerous group shows such as at FIT Arts and Design Gallery, M. David & Co (Brooklyn, NY), Liminality Art Space (Long Island City, NY), New York Live Arts (New York, NY), ChaShaMa (New York, NY) and Bootshaus (Berlin, Germany). Farangiz is a participant in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentorship Program. In 2022, her work was published in Khôra Magazine, Issues 13-16. She was the artist in residence at the LINE Residency in Austin, TX in 2023. Farangiz currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is pursuing her MFA at Hunter College. @fara_yusupova_