Oya Baydar

Oya Baydar was born in 1940. She graduated from Notre Dame de Sion High School for girls in Istanbul. She studied sociology at Istanbul University between 1960 and 1964, and after graduation she started working as an assistant lecturer at her alma mater. Her first book "God Forgot His Children" was published in 1961 and the second one entitled "The Age of War, the Age of Hope" was published in 1964. She then worked as an assistant at Hacettepe University.

Baydar quit writing literature in the 1970s when the socialist ideology and organizing began in Turkey, and focused on researching on the socio-political structures. She got actively involved in the socialist movement. Baydar was arrested and dismissed from her work at the university for being a member of the Turkish Teachers’ Trade Union and the Turkish Labour Party. After her release, she worked as a columnist for Yeni Ortam and Politika newspapers until 1980. Baydar had to leave Turkey after the coup d’etat on September 12, 1980, and continued living in exile in Frankfurt, Germany until 1992. During her years of exile, she lived in various European cities and Moscow. She witnessed the collapse of the socialist system and the Berlin wall, for which she commented, “This wall fell on all of us”. In Turkey, Baydar started working as an editor for Istanbul Encyclopedia as well as a publication director for Turkish Unions Encyclopedia.

In the early 1990s, Baydar began writing short stories. Her book "Farewell Alyosha," which compiled her stories of exile and the collapse of the socialist system, was published in Turkey in 1991. She was awarded the Sait Faik Story Prize with this book. She won the Yunus Nadi Novel Prize in 1993 with her novel "Cat Letters." "Returning Nowhere" was published in 1998. "Hot Ashes Remain," published in 2000, won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize. Baydar received another award, the Cevdet Kudret Literature Prize, with "The Gate of the Judas Tree," which was published in 2004. "The Lost Word" was published in 2008 and in the same year, it was translated to German. In 2016, she received the French-Turkish Literary Award for her novel "Et ne reste que des cendres / Sıcak Külleri Kaldı." Baydar currently continues her work in Istanbul.

Works:
"God Has Forgotten Children" (Allah Çocukları Unuttu), 1961 (novel)
"The Age of War, The Age of Hope" (Savaş Çağı, Umut Çağı), 1963 (novel)
"Farewell Alyosha" (Elveda Alyoşa), 1991 (stories), Sait Faik Story Award (1991)
"Cat Letters" (Kedi Mektupları), 1993 (novel), Yunus Nadi Novel Award (1992)
"Returning Nowhere" (Hiçbiryer’e Dönüş), 1998 (novel), Premio per la Cultura Mediterranea Award in Italy
"Hot Ashes Remain" (Sıcak Külleri Kaldı), 2000 (novel), Orhan Kemal Novel Award (2001), French-Turkish Literary Award (2016)
"The Gate of Judas Tree" (Erguven Kapısı), 2004 (novel), Cevdet Kudret Literary Award (2004)
"Lost Word" (Kayıp Söz), 2007 (novel)
"The General of Garbage" (Çöplüğün Generali), 2009 (novel)
"Savaş Cağı Umut Çağı," 2010
"Hiçbir Yere Dönüş," 2011, Mediterranean Culture Award (2011)
"O Muhteşem Hayatınız," 2012
"Small, Orphaned Things" (Yetim Kalacak Küçük Şeyler), 2014 (memoir)

Reference: kalemagency.com, turkedebiyati.org