Ataol Behramoğlu

Ataol Behramoglu [* April 13, 1942 Çatalca near Istanbul].Is a prominent Turkish poet, translator and author.

Life

Behramoglu is graduated in Russian Language and Literature. In 1970 he published Halkın Dostları review with Ismet Özel. Actually, during this period Ataol Behramoğlu purified his poetry by leaving out unsophisticated certainty and juvenile didacticism. He spent part of his life in exile in Paris and Moscow. He was arrested and sentenced to hard labour as a member of the Turkish Peace Association in 1982, and subsequently went into exile in France where he studied, worked and lived until 1989, when he was acquitted in Turkey. In 1982, also, he won the International Prize of Lotus magazine. His later poems evidence a simpler, more direct style.

His Epic of Moustapha Suphi (1987/88) was the first play in Turkish staged at the 1989 Avignon Theatre Festival. He was the president of the Turkish Writers Syndicate between 1995-1999, and has been the literary and political critic on staff of the Cumhuriyet daily since 1995. He is the Associate professor and Chairman of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Istanbul University. In 2003 he was awarded The Great Prize of Poetry 2003 by Turkish International P.E.N.

Bibliography

Bir Ermeni General (An Armenian General, 1965),
Bir Gun Mutlaka (One Day for Sure, 1970),
Yolculuk, Ozlem, Cesaret ve Kavga Siirleri (Poems of Travel, Longing, Courage and Strife,1974
Ne Yağmur…Ne Şiirler (Neither Rain… Nor Poems, 1976),
Kuşatmada (During the Siege, 1978),
Mustafa Suphi Destan (Epic of Moustapha Suphi, 1979),
Dörtlükler (Quatrains, 1980),
Iyi Bir Yurttas Araniyor (Wanted: A Good Citizen,1983),
Turkiye Uzgun Yurdum, Guzel Yurdum (Turkey, My Sad Homeland, My Beautiful Homeland, 1985),
Kizima Mektuplar (Letters to My Daughter / 1986)
Bebeklerin Ulusu Yok (Babies don’t have Nations, 1988),
Sevgilimsi (You are my Beloved, 1993),
Aşk İki Kişiktir (Love is two Person Thing, 1999),
Yeni Aşka Gazel (Gazel to a new Love, 2002).