Istanbul: Myth and Imagination | Jason Goodwin: Talk & Book Signing

An evening with historian and novelist Jason Goodwin, whose work has long engaged with Istanbul.

As part of the Arts and Culture Lecture Series, Yunus Emre Institute London presents an evening with historian and novelist Jason Goodwin, whose work has long engaged with Istanbul not simply as a setting, but as a site where history, imagination, and narrative consciousness intersect.

In this talk, Goodwin reflects on his enduring engagement with the city, tracing the intellectual and creative pathways that led from historical study to the crafting of fiction. Drawing on his Yashim series, set in 19th-century Istanbul, he considers how the city emerges in writing as a layered construct — shaped by archival knowledge, sensory detail, and the imaginative reconstruction of lived worlds.

Rather than approaching Istanbul as a fixed historical entity, the talk explores the city as a continually reinterpreted space, where memory, myth, and material culture are in constant dialogue. Through reflections on storytelling, food, and the textures of Ottoman urban life, Goodwin opens up the processes through which a city is not only described, but re-authored — shifting between the disciplines of history and the freedoms of fiction.

At the heart of the talk lies a broader inquiry into narrative form itself: how does one translate the density of a historical civilisation into the language of the novel? And what happens when scholarly knowledge gives way to imaginative inhabitation?

Moving between personal reflection and literary analysis, this talk offers a rare insight into the making of historical fiction, while also inviting a reconsideration of Istanbul as both an intellectual and imaginative horizon.

The talk will be followed by a book signing.

Presented in collaboration with the Cornucopia Magazine, a leading publication on the art, culture, and history of Türkiye.

🗓 Thursday, 16 April 2026

🕡 18:30

📍 10 Maple Street W1T 5HA