Alev Alatlı (born 1944 in

Menemen Menemen is a district of İzmir Province in Turkey and its central town. The district extends on a fertile plain formed by the alluvial soil carried by the Gediz River. Adjacent districts are, from east to west; Aliağa and Foça to the north and ...

) is a Turkish columnist and bestselling

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Early years

She was born 1944 in the town of

in western Turkey to an officer's family. She spent her childhood in Japan, where her father was appointed as the Military attaché in the Embassy of Turkey and also as the

Liaison officer A Liaison officer is a person who liaises between two or more organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities on a matter of mutual concern. Generally, liaison officers are used for achieving the best utilization of resources, or empl ...

of the Turkish Brigade in Korea to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. Alev Alatlı attended the

American School in Japan The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ja, アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a ...

Nakameguro, Meguro, Tokyo is a residential district of Meguro, Tokyo. It is popular for its unique boutique cafes and stores, and the area near the Meguro River is a popular ''hanami'' (cherry blossom viewing) destination in mid-spring. The district is situated along Yam ...

. After finishing high school there, her family returned to Turkey, and Alev studied economics at the Middle East Technical University in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, from where she graduated in 1963 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree. Following graduation, she married her classmate Alper Orhon, a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,0 ...

. She was granted a Fulbright Scholarship and her husband a scholarship from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

to conduct postgraduate study in the USA. Educated at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, she earned a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in Development Economics and Econometrics. By this time, she had started to think about the importance of formulas and figures in explaining the world, and decided to pursue studies in philosophy. Although she enrolled at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

for doctoral studies on

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

and philosophy of history she doesn't have a Ph.D. degree. In 1974, Alatlı returned to Turkey. She jobbed a while as a lecturer at Istanbul University and later at the State Planning Organization (DPT) in Ankara in her capacity as an economist. In the next five years after her return from the US, Alev Alatlı spent her time mainly in studying Islam. She was also involved in a

psycholinguistic Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind ...

project of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

on language learning patterns of Turkish children. She published a magazine titled "''Bizim İngilizce''" en, Our English Language) in co-operation with the newspaper ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...

'' for Turks based on native tongue and culture.

Career

In 1982, she quit her other activities to stay at home and to devote herself to writing. Her first book titled "''Aydın Despotizmi...''" (''Despotism of the Intellectuals...'') was a philosophical study. Alatlı's next work and first novel "''Yaseminler Tüter mi Hala?''" (''Jasmines Smells No More!'') appeared in 1985. It was inspired by the true story of a

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνοκύπριοι, Ellinokýprioi, tr, Kıbrıs Rumları) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 r ...

woman. Born and christened at the

Apostolos Andreas Monastery Apostolos Andreas Monastery ( el, Απόστολος Ανδρέας; tr, Apostolos Andreas Manastırı) is a monastery situated just south of Cape Apostolos Andreas, the north-easternmost point of the island of Cyprus, in Rizokarpaso in the K ...

on the Karpas Peninsula of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, she dies in a tragic manner at 32 in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saron ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, after two marriages -one with a Muslim Turkish Cypriot, the other with an Orthodox Greek– and five children. Alev Alatlı's next works were two translations into Turkish of books by

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...

titled "''Covering Islam''" (''Haberlerin Ağında Islam'') and "''The Question of Palestine''" (''Filistin’in Sorunu''), for which she was awarded with an honorary medal by

Yaser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

. Her novella "''İşkenceci''" (''The Torturer''), published in 1987, served as a prelude to her next four novels ''Viva la Muerte! - Yaşasın Ölüm!'') in 1992, ''’Nuke’ Türkiye!'' (''Nuke Turkey'') in 1993, ''Valla, Kurda Yedirdin Beni!'' (''You Sure Made Me Prey to the Wolves'') in 1993 and ''O.K. Musti! Türkiye Tamamdır.'' (''OK Mustafa, Turkey's Done!'') in 1994. The highly realistic novel "''Kadere Karşı Koy A.Ş.''" (''Format your Fate Formidably, Inc.''), another best seller by Alatlı, followed in 1995. Alev Alatlı's first poetry book "''Eylül '98''" (''September 1998'') came out in 1999. She wrote two futuristic books, "''Kabus''" (''The Nightmare'') in 1999 and "''Rüya''" (''The Dream'') in 2000 comprised by "

Schrödinger's Cat In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead, while it is unobserved in ...

". Alatlı's next novels "''Grace over Enlightenment''", "''World Sentry''" and "''Eyy Uhnem! Eyy Uhnem!''" are the first three books of a four-volume work on

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

called "''Gogol’un İzinde''" (''On the Footsteps of

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

''). She was awarded in 2006 with the prize "

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life a ...

100 Year in Literature" for her third novel in the series. Since 2002, she wrote bi-weekly a column in the conservative newspaper with a moderate Islamic worldview '' Zaman''. In February 2008, an article of her on the women's Islamic headgear

turban A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promin ...

was not allowed to be published by the newspaper's editor-of-chief with the argument "our readers are not ready for that". A book published in 2003 under the title "''Şimdi Değilse, Ne zaman?''" (''If not now, when?'') brought out a collection of her articles appeared in the newspaper ''Zaman''.

Books

Novels

*''Aydın Despotizmi...'', Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım (1982) *''Yaseminler Tüter mi Hala?'', Everest Yayınları (1985) *''İşkenceci'' (1987) *''Viva la Muerte! - Yaşasın Ölüm! - Or'da Kimse Var mı? 1. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (1992) *''’Nuke’ Türkiye!- Or'da Kimse Var mı? 2. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (1993) *''Valla, Kurda Yedirdin Beni! - Or'da Kimse Var mı? 3. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (1993) *''O.K. Musti! Türkiye Tamamdır. - Or'da Kimse Var mı? 4. Kitap'', Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım (1994) *''Kabus - Schrödinger'in Kedisi 1. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (1999) *''Rüya - Schrödinger'in Kedisi 2. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (2000) *''Aydınlanma Değil, Merhamet! - Gogol'ün İzinde 1. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (2004) *''Dünya Nöbeti - Gogol'ün İzinde 2. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (2005) * ''Eyy Uhnem! Eyy Uhnem! - Gogol'ün İzinde 3. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (2006) * ''Hollywood'u Kapattığım Gün'', Everest Yayınları (2009) 360 pp., * ''Aklın Yolu da Bir Değildir... '', Destek Yayınları (2009) 176 pp., * ''Beyaz Türkler Küstüler - Or'da Hâlâ Kimse Var mı? 5. Kitap'', Everest Yayınları (2013) 460 pp.,

Non-fiction

* ''Şimdi Değilse, Ne zaman?'', Zaman Kitap (2003) 268 pp., * Hayır!' Diyebilmeli İnsan'', Zaman Kitap (2005) 182 pp,

Poems

*''Eylül '98'' (''September 1998'')

Translations

*''Haberlerin Ağında İslam'' (1985) *''Filistin’in Sorunu'' (1986) *''En Emin Yol "Akvem ül-Mesalik’li Marifat Ahval el-Memalik" Tunuslu Hayreddin Paşa'' (1986)

Theater plays

''Kadere Karşı Koy A.Ş.'' (2002)

References

External links

Alatlı's official web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alatli, Alev 20th-century Turkish women writers 21st-century Turkish women writers 1944 births People from Menemen Middle East Technical University alumni Vanderbilt University alumni Dartmouth College alumni Istanbul University faculty Turkish women economists Turkish economists Turkish columnists Living people American School in Japan alumni Turkish women columnists