Beauty is fleeting, and should you be inclined to forget that fact, the poems and short fiction of Kaan Erkam are more than willing to remind you. They speak evenly and carefully about love, sex, and the overwhelming, constant knowledge of inevitable loss, showing us the things we all know but are afraid to face, with precise, clever language that will break your heart.
Kaan Erkam was born prematurely in the gulf of Izmir in 1965. He never thought of anything other than his bicycle until elementary school. At his last year of elementary school, he watched Donizetti's L'ELISIR D'AMORE. He fell in love with the soprano and decided to become an opera artist. And he did.
When his first wife realized that he was taking notes for the themes of his plays and that these were in fact very nice stories, his first book was published. Others followed.
He founded ALO TIYATRO in 1980 when he was still a student. Unable to find theater stages, he performed in shopping stores. The MINI TIYATRO he staged in Vakko Culture Matinées (the cultural service of one of the most prominent and elegant trademarks in Turkey) became very popular. He was awarded a prize in the PARIS AMATEUR THEATERS FESTIVAL with his adaptation of Moliere's LE MEDICIN VOLANT. But he could not go to receive his reward personally since he could not get a visa.
He sent a telegraph informing them what they should do with the prize. But we believe the French did not understand the content of it. When school was over, the theater also changed direction and became first OPERET TIYATROSU, and then ODA TIYATROSU OYUNCULARI.
His motto is - those interested can come, watch, take and read. He drinks raki with soda. He loves Miller and JACK DANIELS. Drop him a line at kaanerkam@yahoo.com.
Kaan's works here at Unlikely Stories are:
2003:
Memory
A Cat Died Today
The Eyes of the Fish the Ears of the Snail