Yaşar Kemal
Biography
Yaşar Kemal (sometimes written Yashar Kemal) was born in Gökçedam in the South of Turkey in 1923. He was born into a Kurdish family. He lost his right eye in an accident when he was a child and then saw his father being stabbed to death by his father’s adoptive son. He started writing poetry, including an elegy on the death of his uncle, a bandit. He published his first poem at the age of sixteen. His first book was a collection of folklore. His first story was published while he was doing his army service. After school, he worked in various agriculture-related jobs.
He started writing as a letter writer and then as a journalist and finally as a novelist. In 1955 he published his first novella and then the novel for which he is famous, İnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk). In 1965 he was arrested for Communist activities and spent a year in jail. He later joined the Turkish Workers’ Party but resigned after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was critical of Turkish repression of the Kurds. He went on to publish many well-received novels and wrote articles in the press. He died in 2015.
Other links
Bibliography
1943 Ağıtlar (folkore)
1952 Sarı Sıcak (stories)
1955 Yanan Ormanlarda 50 Gün (journalism)
1955 Çukurova Yana Yana (journalism)
1955 Teneke (story)
1955 İnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk) (novel)
1967 Peribacaları (journalism)
1960 Orta Direk (The Wind from the Plain) (novel)
1961 Taş Çatlasa (essays)
1963 Yer Demir Gök Bakır (Iron Earth, Copper Sky) (novel)
1967 Üç Anadolu Efsanesi (stories)
1958 Anatolian Tales (stories)
1968 Ölmez Otu (The Undying Grass) (novel)
1969 Ince Memed II (They Burn the Thistles) (novel)
1970 Ağrıdağı Efsanesi (The Legend of Ararat) (novel)
1971 Binboğalar Efsanesi (The Legend of the Thousand Bulls) (novel)
1971 Bu Diyar Baştan Başa (journalism)
1972 Çakırcalı Efe (novel)
1974 Bir Bulut Kaynıyor (journalism)
1974 Akçasazın Ağaları/Demirciler Çarşısı Cinayeti (The Agas of Akchasaz Trilogy/Murder in the Ironsmiths Market) (novel)
1975 Akçasazın Ağaları/Yusufcuk Yusuf (novel)
1976 Yılanı Öldürseler (To Crush the Serpent) (novel)
1976 Al Gözüm Seyreyle Salih (The Saga of a Seagull) (novel)
1977 Filler Sultanı ile Kırmızı Sakallı Topal Karınca (children’s)
1978 Allahın Askerleri (novel)
1978 Kuşlar da Gitti (The Birds Have Also Gone: Long Stories) (novel)
1978 Deniz Küstü (The Sea-Crossed Fisherman) (novel)
1979 Baldaki Tuz (journalism)
1980 Ağacın Çürüğü (articles and speeches)
1980 Yağmurcuk Kuşu/Kimsecik I (Kimsecik I – Little Nobody I; laterSalman the Solitary) (novel)
1982 Hüyükteki Nar Ağacı (novel)
1985 Yayımlanmamış 10 Ağıt (ballaads)
1985 Kale Kapısı/Kimsecik II(novel)
1991Kanın Sesi/Kimsecik III (novel)
1995 Ustadır Arı (essays)
1997 Fırat Suyu Kan Akıyor Baksana (novel)
1997 Sarı Defterdekiler (folklore)
2002 Karıncanın Su İçtiği (novel)
2002 Tanyeri Horozlarıs (novel)