Zeynep Özakat is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher. She holds an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, where she received The Shirley Jackson Prize in Fiction, The Leonard Brown Prize in Poetry, and a Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work. Her writing has been published in Glimmer Train Stories, Black Warrior Review, and Gulf Coast. Zeynep is originally from Istanbul, Turkey, but now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can find out more here.