︎

Pronounced Ed-a Gun-eye-din. Post(-disciplinary, -colonial) essayist and scholar. Working across academic nonfiction and creative nonfiction. Interested in class, diaspora, and race.

edahgunaydin(at)gmail.com


Pronounced Ed-a Gun-eye-din. Post(-disciplinary, -colonial) essayist and scholar. Working across academic non-fiction and creative non-fiction. Interested in class, diaspora, and race.


edahgunaydin(at)gmail.com

Writing


Root & Branch is my first book of collected essays. It won the 2023 Victoria Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the ABIAs. 
You can order a copy here.



Reviews of Root & Branch

“Gunaydin is a gifted essayist driven by an honest desire to see society transformed, “to alter the conditions of everyday existence, so that there’s nothing that we need to be saved from”. Gunaydin’s ability to combine a searing intellect with wit and ingenuity is breathtaking.”
Books + Publishing

“All of this is related with Gunaydin’s unflinching honesty. Her talent lies in her ability to weave together the personal and the political.”
Ruth Balint for The Conversation

“Exuberant writing that is at turns funny, sarcastic and dark.”
May Ngo for Meanjin 

“Gunaydin’s essays are multifaceted and engrossing, combining sharp wit and insightful commentary in a depiction of modern life.”
Elena Perse for ArtsHub

“Sharply observed and intimate, drenched in the awkward, ugly, banal and beautiful materiality of the everyday.”
Dženana Vucic for Kill Your Darlings

“Readers who enjoy the work of Ellena Savage, Maria Tumarkin, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Behrouz Boochani will be absorbed and impressed.”
Clare Millar for Readings

“The writing is both forthright and vulnerable; Gunaydin offers a compassionate take on humanity and reveals a witty and powerful intellect.”
Sister Zai Zanda for The Big Issue

“Important and significant. Much more so than most other books, Root & Branch has the potential to leave a unique, lasting impression on the reader.”
Roland Leikauf for Signals magazine

Upcoming Events






Essays you can find online 

‘Saved by Books’, a review of Shannon Burns’ Childhood for The Sydney Review of Books

‘Pedestrian’, The Sydney Review of Books. Part of The Commute: Essays about getting around.

‘This Email May Contain Information’, on Toby Fitch. Liminal Mag series in collaboration with Cordite Poetry Review.

‘Holding Ground’, The Sydney Review of Books. Part of Writing Gender.

‘Street as Studio’, in Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook

‘Why Am I Like This’, on Hanif Kureishi in Liminal Mag

‘Loss Statement’, The Sydney Review of Books

‘Handmade Transcendence: On fashioning presence through process’, a response to Shireen Taweel in the Griffith Review Online

‘No Struggling Alone’, a review of Jodi Dean’s Comrade (Verso 2019), for The Sydney Review of Books.

‘Shit-Eating’, Liminal Mag publication with the theme of Taste. You can see various authors read from the publication here.

‘Tell All’, The Sydney Review of Books

‘Born’, Footscray Arts Centre

‘Your Life’s Work’, The Lifted Brow Online. I discussed this piece on RRR.

‘Gothic Body’, Voiceworks 

‘Only So Much’, Meanjin Quarterly , longlisted for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers

‘Second City’, The Sydney Review of Books

Media Appearances

2023
‘Eda Gunaydin reflects on family and history in award winning essay collection’ for University of Wollongong

Article in the Sydney Morning Herald featuring Root & Branch’s VPLA win.

‘Meet the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award winners’, for the Wheeler Centre

2022
‘I was young and so ambitious in made me sick. I’m not alone’, a reflection on how my relationship with work and ambition have changed for The Age.

The Writers: Eda Gunaydin for ABC Radio

Podcast interview about Root & Branch with Bede Haines for the New Books Network.

5 Questions for Liminal Mag

Ten Terrifying Questions for Booktopia

‘Cultural Ambassador’, a reflection on our last Mardi Gras pre-pandemic for Queerstories.
2021
‘House Music: What Made Eda Gunaydin Happy During the Great Confinement’, an interview about my lockdown listening habits with Bernard Zuel.
2019
‘What I’m Reading’ for Meanjin Quarterly

Editing

As Contributing Editor at The Sydney Review of Books, commissioned and edited:

 
Editor for ‘I’m Not Hungry Anymore’ by Hasib Hourani, Liminal Mag

Editor for Overland’s Speculative Futures edition

Awards

2023
Winner, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Non-Fiction for Root & Branch: Essays on Inheritance

Shortlisted, The ABIA's Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2023
2022
Shortlisted, Woollahra Digital Literary Award, Non-Fiction 2022

2021
UTS Library Creative in Residence: Finishing School Collective


2020
Australia Council for the Arts, Projects for Individuals


2019
Writing NSW Early Career Writer Grant

Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre residency                                              
Shortlisted, 2019 Queensland Literary Award, QUT Digital Literature Award

Longlisted, Liminal Fiction Award

Varuna, The Writers’ House, Rising in the West Fellowship recipient

Shortlisted, Woollahra Digital Literary Award, Non-Fiction 2019


2018
Dinny O’Hearn Fellowship, Australian Centre, University of Melbourne




2016
Monash University Undergraduate Creative Writing Prize, shortlist

WestWords CAL Western Sydney Emerging Writers’ Fellowship
2015
Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers, longlist

Adrian Consett Stephen Memorial Prize for Prose, winner, University of Sydney