OVA CEREN

Hi! It's me, Ova Ceren, the creator behind the popular BookTok and Instagram account @excusemyreading, where I share the love of books, ducks and cottagecore.

I'm a writer and software developer, immigrated from Turkey to the UK, living in Cambridge with my Turkish roots.

​

My debut novel, The Book of Heartbreak, will be published in August 2025 by Bonnier Books (UK) and Alcove Press (US).

After the pandemic, we moved into a bigger house, with a studio nestled at the far end of a very long garden.

We debated how best to use the space, and in the end, I quoted Virginia Woolf’s famous words to my husband: ‘A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.’
 

At that time, I was already trying to write, though two novels had failed during the querying process. So, I transformed the little studio into my writing shed — or, as I like to call it, my garden library.
 

This space has been my sanctuary for the past few years, and it’s where I plotted The Book of Heartbreak.
Click to find me on Instagram and Tiktok