stone in love

"Erdur is deranged in all the right ways. His poetry should come with
a warning lable. But since it doesn't I'm here to say: BE PREPARED. Stone in
Love, Ouz Erdur's debut work in the English Language frightens, twists, howls
with powerful insights, hilarity and heartbreak and does so at crazy-ass, estreme
speed.
Jack Moe, author of Common Uniqueness

born on the western coast of turkey, where a great deal of what we now call "ancient
greece" happened, ouz had to go far away at a young age in order to find out that "home" is
less a place than a state of mind. after living in auburn maine for a cold, complicated teenage
year as a cultural exchange student, he went back to turkey in 1990 and attended college
in istanbul, the one-time capital of not one but two world empires, namely byzantine and
ottoman. in this magnificent city of seven hills and over ten million people, ouz earned a
bachelor's in economics, a master's in environmental sciences, and close to no money at all.
then in 1997, he embarked upon the second life-changing cross-Atlantic journey of his life,
packed his existential awe and social alienation into two suitcases, and moved to new york
city, where he occupied 10 different apartments in slightly less than 10 years. a decade of
seeking, a decent amount of gloom, some poetry, and a lot of bourbon later, ouz finally came
to terms with the fact that the bizarre g in his name makes it sound like "cheerios" and that he
wasn't finding the true meaning of existence anytime soon. so instead, he settled for a ph.d. in
cultural anthropology from columbia university, which cost him, among other things, a flourishing
career in professional dog-walking. since 2009, ouz teaches courses in anthropology,
archaeology, the middle east, and friedrich nietzsche at unc asheville. he also tries to eat better,
floss regularly, and go easy on the bourbon.