Oya Baydar

Oya Baydar
Occupation	Novelist, story writer
Website
www.oyabaydar.com

Oya Baydar, Turkish writer, sociologist. She got involved in socialist politics for long time.

Education and early works

She studied at Notre Dame de Sion High School in Istanbul. She published her first novel, in which she inspired by French writer Françoise Sagan, while she was a student in high school. The novel she wrote when she was in last year of high school, namely God Has Forgot Children, was published both in the newspaper Hürriyet and as a book. She was about to expel from the school due to this novel. After these novels she wrote in high school years, she had a break on writing, interested in politics for long time and then turned back to literature again in her maturity age.

She graduated from Istanbul University, Department of Sociology in 1964 and entered into this department as assistant. Professors' Council of the University rejected her doctoral thesis two times, which was about the rise of labour force in Turkey and students held down the University in order to protest that. That was the first university occupation in Turkey. Baydar, then became assistant in Hacettepe University.

Political life

During the military coup in 1972 she was arrested due to her socialist identity as a member of Workers Party of Turkey and Teachers' Union of Turkey and she left the University. Between 1972-1974 she worked as columnist in newspapers of Yeni Ortam (meaning new platform) and Politika (meaning politics). She issued her first journal together with her husband Aydın Engin and Yusuf Ziya Bahadınlı. She was known as a socialist writer, researcher and an activist woman.

During the 1980 military coup she went abroad and had been in exile for 12 years in Germany. There she lived in the falling period of socialist system. She told this period in 1991 in her story book called Farewell Alyosha.

Maturity age

She turned back to Turkey in 1992. She worked as editor for Istanbul Encyclopedia, which was the common project of History Foundation and Ministry of Culture, and as the editor in chief for The Unionism Encyclopedia of Turkey. She won many awards with the novels and stories she published after turning back to Turkey, and became a beloved writer.

Works

Novel

• Letters of Cats (Kedi Mektupları), 1993
• Turning to Nowhere (Hiçbiryer’e Dönüş), 1998
• Hot Ashes Left (Sıcak Külleri Kaldı), 2000
• (Erguvan Kapısı), 2004
• The Lost Word (Kayıp Söz), 2007
• The General of Garbage Heap (Çöplüğün Generali), 2009

Story

• Farewell Alyosha (Elveda Alyoşa), 1991

Others

• Family Albums of the Republic (Cumhuriyetin Aile Albümleri)
• From Villages to Cities in 75 Years (75 Yılda Köylerden Şehirlere)
• (75 Yılda Çarklardan Chip'lere)
• (75 Yılda Çarkları Döndürenler)
• Changing Life Changing Person in 75 Years - Fashions of the Republic (75 Yılda Değişen Yaşam Değişen İnsan-Cumhuriyet Modaları)
• Fashions of the Republic (Cumhuriyet Modaları)
• The Unionism Encyclopedia of Turkey (Türkiye Sendikacılık Ansiklopedisi)

Awards

• Sait Faik Story Award in 1991 (with Elveda Alyoşa)
• Yunus Nadi Novel Award in 1993 (with Kedi Mektupları)
• Orhan Kemal Novel Award in 2001 (with Sıcak Külleri Kaldı)
• Cevdet Kudret Literature Award in 2004 (with Erguvan Kapısı)