Denise Derya Brandt

Denise Derya Brandt is a debut author whose fiction and nonfiction writing is inspired by her life and the lives of the people she met while working for more than twenty years in international development, leading life-saving women’s health projects in Afghanistan, Liberia, and Myanmar (with shorter stints in other interesting places).

She’s a graduate of The Book Incubator writing program, was a 2024 finalist for the Women's Fiction Writers Association Rising Star Award and was a 2025 Poets & Writers Get the Word Out publicity incubator fellow. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Arizona State University and a master's degree in development management from The London School of Economics.

After graduate school, Denise lived in Istanbul, where she worked as an Associate Publisher for Turkish Business World, an English-language business magazine. As a Turkish-American with moderate Turkish language skills, she claims she can fool tourists but not taxi drivers! Originally from Arizona, Denise now lives in Northern Kentucky with her husband.

Her debut novel, Istanbul Dreaming, is forthcoming from She Writes Press on September 29, 2026.