Writer, translator, artist, and art critic.
He was born in 1971 in the town of Hezex (İdil) in Şirnex (Şırnak) Province. He graduated from the Department of Art Education in the Faculty of Education at Çukurova University. Despite drawing comics and writing poetry at a very early age, he gave up both in favour of contemporary art and writing Kurdish literary texts. Some of his poems that were published back then in art and literature magazines such as Milliyet Sanat Genç Şairler Antolojisi, Mavi Çizgi, Söylem, Şiir Oku, Düşün, E, and Islık were published again the almanac titled Adam Sanat Şiir Yıllığı (Adam Art Poetry Almanac) prepared by Mehmet H. Doğan between 1998 and 2001. His first experimental short story in Kurdish, Mirin û Dîyalektîk (Death and Dialectics), written under the pseudonym “Sîyabend Z.”, was published in the magazine War in 1999. A translation from Jean Paul Sartre, which he had done with Azad Lîz, also appeared in the same issue. His translations of the great poets of Generation Tîrêj, such as Arjen Arî’s Kawa Destanı ve Azhî Dehaq (The Epic of Kawa and Azhî Dehaq, 2011), and Berken Bereh’s Kalbim Bir Yastıktır Aşka (My Heart is a Pillow for Love, 2012), have been published by Evrensel Publishing House. His Kurdish literary works and translations published between 2010 and 2012 in the magazine Sıcak Nal, edited by Süreyya Evren, were published in 2013 as a book titled Uykusu Bölünenler (They Who Lost Sleep). Özmen wrote articles about art for the first contemporary art magazine in Turkey, art-ist Güncel Sanat Dergisi, w edited by Halil Altındere. He also wrote articles about art, literature, exhibitions, and artists for Sanat Dünyamız, Siyahî, Sıcak Nal, Birgün, and Radikal Kitap.
In 2005, Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland deemed Şener Özmen worthy of the Prix Meuly Prize. Between 2005 and 2007, Özmen participated in the TRANSFER 07 Artists Exchange Program in Munster, Germany, organized by the Cultural Secretariat of North Rhein-Westphalia (NRW). In 2008, he also participated in the Hub City Writers Project in Munich, which was organized by the Goethe Institute Istanbul.
Şener Özmen lives in Diyarbakır.

Works:

Poetry:
Eskiden Ne Güzeldi (It Was So Beautiful Then), Liman Editions, 1999
Şaşıracaksın (You Will Be Amazed), Liman Editions, 1999
Ağıt mı bu yaktığın? (Is That a Dirge You Sing?), Liman Editions, 1999
Sözüm Haritadan Dışarı (Saving Your Map), Lîs Editions, 2004

Short story collection:
Keleh (Castle), Lîs Editions, 2012

Novels:
Rojnivîska Spinoza (The Diary of Spinoza), Lîs Editions, 2008
Pêşbaziya Çîrokên Neqediyayî (Bout of the Incompetent Stories), Lîs Editions, 2010
Gramera Bêhizûr (Restless Grammar), Lîs Editions, 2014 (second edition, Lîs Editions, 2015)
Spinoza’nın Günlüğü, (The Diary of Spinoza), Translated into Turkish by Abdullah Koçal, Everest Editions, 2014
Kifayetsiz Hikâyeler Müsabakası (Bout of the Incompetent Stories), Translated into Turkish by Abdullah Koçal, Everest Editions, 2015

Articles:
Travma ve Islahat (Trauma and Redress), commentaries on contemporary art, Lîs Editions, 2007
Uykusu Bölünenler (They Who Lost Sleep), commentaries on modern Kurdish literature, Lîs Editions, 2013

Translations:
Kawa Destanı ve Azhî Dehaq (The Epic of Kawa and Azhî Dehaq), Arjen Arî, Evrensel Editions, 2011
Kalbim Bir Yastıktır Aşka (My Heart is a Pillow for Love), Berken Bereh, Evrensel Editions, 2012

Contact information:
Email address: sener.ozmen@gmail.com