SongWriter Season 6 Continues with Asli Perker & Tuna Tuna Kiremitci

SongWriter is a podcast that turns stories into songs, featuring David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Joyce Carol Oates, Steve Earle, David Sedaris, Susan Orlean, Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), and Questlove.

Turkish novelist Asli Perker almost died in an accident when she was very young. Her family was traveling in two cars through a blizzard, on a road high above the Araxes River. Asli had begged to sit on her mother’s lap in the first vehicle, but since it didn’t have chains on the tires, her father insisted that she travel in the second. Asli comforted herself by watching the brake lights of the car in front, but partway through the drive, the lights disappeared.

“I was in a panic, but the driver said, ‘Don’t worry, they must have gone into the city,’” Asli recalls. “But he knew.”

Asli’s mother barely survived the accident. The resulting family disruption and dissolution shaped Asli’s childhood, and inspired her to begin writing. Since then Asli has published seven novels, which have been translated into 23 languages, and she has adoring fans all over the world. Still, Asli says that her mother remains her most important reader.

“That poor woman suffers with everything that I write,” Asli says, adding with a laugh, “I am only wishing that my daughter will become a writer so that I go through the same ordeal—I deserve it.”

Social scientist Dr. Itir Erhart points out that writing (and art generally), is a powerful way to process pain and connect with other people’s emotional lives. As we tell our stories, we create empathy in the audience, and that empathy becomes a pathway for their struggles. Dr. Erhart sometimes experiences severe depression, and she shares this story with her students as an intentional way of inviting them to talk about their own challenges.

“Asli talks about it. Itir talks about it. So can I,” Dr. Erhart says. “That by itself has a healing power, I think, just talking about it.”

Songwriter, poet, and crime novelist Tuna Kiremitçi also uses his writing to process emotion. He jokes that without writing he is a “dumb blonde,” uncertain how to think about the world. But once he starts writing, Tuna says that windows and doors begin to open as his subconscious emerges.

“This is the pleasure of writing, for me,” Tuna says. “I am communicating with myself.”

Tuna was struck by the connection of Asli’s story to the Araxes River. He notes that this river has a long history in Anatolian myth and storytelling. And it doesn’t hurt that the sound of the name in English is very appealing.

“I didn’t know the English name of Aras is Araxes; it was a discovery for me,” Tuna says. “Araxes is a very musical word—it’s like a rock and roll band’s name.”

Season six of SongWriter is made possible by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation.