Alev Alatlı is a Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

, philosopher, columnist

Columnist

A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

 and bestselling novelist.

Early years

She was born 1944 in the town of Menemen

Menemen

Menemen is a district of İzmir Province in Turkey as well as the district's central town. The district extends on a fertile plain formed by the alluvial soil carried by the Gediz River...

 in western Turkey to an officer's family. She spent her childhood in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, where her father was appointed as the Military attaché

Military attaché

A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...

 in the Embassy of Turkey and also as the Liaison officer

Liaison officer

A liaison officer or LNO is a person that liaises between two organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities. Generally, they are used to achieve the best utilization of resources or employment of services of one organization by another. In the military, liaison officers may...

 of the Turkish Brigade in Korea

Turkish Brigade

The Turkish Brigade was a Turkish Army Infantry Brigade that served under United Nations command during the Korean War between 1950 to 1953. Attached to the U.S...

 to the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

.

Alev Alatlı attended the American School in Japan

American School in Japan

The American School in Japan was founded in 1902 and 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 high school, all located on the Chōfu campus...

 in Nakameguro, Meguro, Tokyo

Nakameguro, Meguro, Tokyo

is a quiet residential district of Meguro, Tokyo. The district is situated along Yamate Dōri Ave and on the southern region of Komazawa Dōri Ave. Since Nakameguro Station is located not in this district but in northern Kamimeguro, the place name Nakameguro is often used for the larger region...

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

Middle East Technical University

Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...

 in Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

, from where she graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree.

Following graduation, she married her classmate Alper Orhon, a Turkish Cypriot. She was granted a Fulbright Scholarship and her husband a scholarship from the Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 to conduct postgraduate study in the USA. Educated at Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

 in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, she earned a Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 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

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. She then attended Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 and did doctoral studies on philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...

 and philosophy of history

Philosophy of history

The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...

.

In 1974, Alatlı returned to Turkey. She jobbed a while as a lecturer at Istanbul University

Istanbul University

Istanbul University is a Turkish university located in Istanbul. The main campus is adjacent to Beyazıt Square.- Synopsis :A madrasa, a religious school, was established sometime in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. An institution of higher education named the...

 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 USA, Alev Alatlı spent her time mainly in studying Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. She was also involved in a psycholinguistic project of the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

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

Cumhuriyet

Cumhuriyet is a centre-left Turkish daily newspaper, founded on May 7, 1924 by journalist Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu. Based in Istanbul, it has been situated since October 17, 2005 in Mecidiyeköy. Cumhuriyet was the last newspaper to leave the old press district Cağaloğlu...

 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 Smoke No More!) appeared in 1985. It was inspired by the true story of a Greek Cypriot woman. Born and christened at the Apostolos Andreas Monastery

Apostolos Andreas Monastery

Apostolos Andreas Monastery is a monastery situated just south of Cape Apostolos Andreas, which is the north-eastern most point of the island of Cyprus, in the Karpass Peninsula. The monastery is dedicated to Saint Andrew. The monastery is an important site to the Cypriot Orthodox Church...

 on the Karpas Peninsula of Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, she dies in a tragic manner at 32 in Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, 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 Said

Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...

 titled "Covering Islam" (Haberlerin Ağında Islam) and "The Question of Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

" (Filistin’in Sorunu), for which she was awarded with an honorary medal by Yaser Arafat.

Her novelella "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

Schrödinger's cat

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a cat that might be...

".

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

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

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

Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...

). She was awarded in 2006 with the prize "Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov 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

Zaman (newspaper)

Zaman is a major, high-circulation daily newspaper in Turkey. It was founded in 1986 and was the first Turkish daily to go online in 1995. It contains national , international, business and other news...

. In February 2008, an article of her on the women's Islamic headgear turban

Turban

In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...

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.

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., ISBN 9789752896000
• Aklın Yolu da Bir Değildir... , Destek Yayınları (2009) 176 pp., ISBN 9789944298315

Non-fiction

• Şimdi Değilse, Ne zaman?, Zaman Kitap (2003) 268 pp., ISBN 975857823-5
• Hayır!' Diyebilmeli İnsan, Zaman Kitap (2005) 182 pp, ISBN 975-8578-71-5

Translations

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

External links

• Her official web page