Poetic Islam, Islamic Poetry?

“Whoever erases the Islamic from this poetry erases the poetic in Islam”, writes the author and award-winning poet Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç in his highly acclaimed book Muslimaniac (2023). Keskinkılıç deals academically and artistically with issues such as anti-Muslim racism, Orientalism, and the influence of European-Islamic history on contemporary cultural production. In his poetry debut Prinzenbad (2022), Muslim spirituality, memories, and queer desire form the literary coordinate system for a journey through alternative geographies.

On 3 June 2025, he will read poems as part of the exhibition The European Koran at the Weltmuseum Wien and engage in a conversation with Muhammet Ali Bas.

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (*1989) is a political scientist, freelance author, and poet. He studied in Vienna, Berlin, and Cambridge and teaches and researches at Berlin universities. In 2023 Muslimaniac. Die Karriere eines Feindbildes was published by Verbrecher Verlag in 2023. In addition to academic texts, Keskinkılıç writes columns, essays, prose, audio plays, and poetry. His poetry debut Prinzenbad was published by ELIF Verlag in 2022. His poems have been translated into various languages, including English, French, Italian, and Kazakh, and presented as part of multimedia art exhibitions at the Grassi Museum Leipzig, the Literaturpassage Vienna, and most recently at the ACUD Gallery in Berlin. In 2024, Keskinkılıç was nominated for the Heidelberg Clemens Brentano Prize and the Dresden Poetry Prize. He took 2nd place at the Feldkirch 2024 Poetry Prize. Keskinkılıç is currently writing his second volume of poetry.

Lecture in German language.
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket.
Participation is free for annual ticket holders, Weltmuseum Wien Friends, Patrons, Members and Ambassadors as well as ICOM members and holders of the Kulturpass.
Registration:  online (limited number of participants)
Meeting point: WMW Forum