ALATLI, Alev

Novelist (b. 1944, Menemen / İzmir). She is from a Rumelian family. The playwright Musahipzade Celal was her mother’s great-uncle. She attended Mimar Kemal Primary School in Ankara and completed her primary education at Erzurum Kültür Kurumu Primary School. She went to Japan with her family when she had completed her education at Ankara Namık Kemal Secondary School. She graduated from THA American School in Japan and from the Middle East Technical University, Department of Economy and Statistics in 1965. She went to the United States on Fulbright scholarship and completed her postgraduate education at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (1968). She also studied philosophy and theology at Dartmouth College.

Meanwhile, she worked as an academician at Maine State in United States between 1968 and 1969 and gave lectures of economy of growth at Caan College (1969). She continued working on her studies of religion in Türkiye and Cairo after returning from the United States. She went to United States again after working as a specialist at İstanbul University and the State Planning Organization for two years (1970- 72). She did research at California University (1973- 74). In İstanbul she took part in the psycho- language project that was arranged by Berkeley and she published the review Bizim English, a Turkish based English teaching review, in association with the newspaper Cumhuriyet (1981- 84). She was the Vice President of the Writers Cooperative Board (1984- 85).

She has focused on writing since 1984. Her many articles have been published in the reviews Nokta, Yazko Somut, Türk Edebiyatı etc. and her interviews, in the newspaper Zaman (1986). She won the Writers Union of Türkiye Novel Award in 1987 with her novel İşkenceci (The Tormentor).

WORKS:

NOVEL: Yaseminler Tüter mi Hâlâ (Do Jasmines Still Give Off Smoke?, 1985), Paslanmış Mesih (Rusty Christ, 1986), İşkenceci (The Tormentor, 1986), Viva la Muerte (Long Live the Dead, 1992), Nuke Türkiye (Nuke Türkiye, 1993), Valla Kurda Yedirdin Beni (You Had Me Eaten by a Wolf, 1993), O.K. Musti Türkiye Tamamdır (O.K Musti Türkiye is Done, 1994), Schrödinger'in Kedisi / Kâbus (Schrödinger’s Cat / The Nightmare, 1995), Schrödinger'in Kedisi / Rüya (Schrödinger’s Cat / The Dream, 1996).

ESSAY: Aydın Despotizmi (Intellectual Despotism, 1986), Kadere Karşı Koy A.Ş. (Resist the Fate Inc., 1995), Eylül 1998 (September 1998, 1999).