ALEV ALATLI

Alev Alatlı, born in 1944 in İzmir, attended high school in Tokyo, Japan. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Economics & Statistics from Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), and pursued her master's degree in Economics & Econometrics at Vanderbilt University in the United States with a Fulbright scholarship.

Subsequently, she began her studies in philosophy and pursued her doctoral studies at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, focusing on Theology, Thought, and the History of Civilization.

Returning to Turkey in 1974, she worked as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics at Istanbul University and as a senior economist at the State Planning Organization in Ankara. She also collaborated on psycho-linguistic studies with the University of California, Berkeley.

Alatlı, along with Cumhuriyet Gazetesi, co-founded a magazine called "Bizim English" and later served as vice president of the Turkish Writers Cooperative (YAZKO).

In 1985 and 1986, her translated works of Edward Said's "Covering Islam" and "The Question of Palestine" were published.

Her efforts to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause earned her the "Medal of Freedom" from Yasser Arafat while he was in exile in Tunisia in 1986.

In 2006, she received the Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov 100th Anniversary Literary Award in Russia.

In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Prize in literature.

She was honored with honorary doctorates from Bülent Ecevit University in 2012 and Süleyman Demirel University in 2017.

From 2005 to 2017, she served as the chairman of the board of trustees at Kapadokya Vocational School. From 2017 until her passing, she served as the chairman of the board of trustees at Kapadokya University.

Her first published original work is "Aydın Despotism." This was followed by "Yaseminler Tüter mi Hala?" in 1985, and "Torturer," which won the Writers' Union's "Best Novel of the Year" award in 1987.

"Viva La Muerte" preceded "Or’da kimse var mı?" in the quartet. "Nuke Turkey!" and "OK Musti, Turkey is Alright!" were published in 1993, following "Viva la Muerte." "Kadere Karşı Koy A.Ş." was published in 1995. She released a small prose-poetry essay titled "September 1998" in 1999, followed by "Schrödinger's Cat, Nightmare" in 2000, and "Schrödinger's Cat, Dream" in 2001. The first part of the river novel titled "In the Footsteps of Gogol," "Not Enlightenment, But Mercy," was published in the fall of 2004, followed by "World Watch" and "Oh my sorrow! Oh my sorrow!".

"Hollywood'u Kapattığım Gün" was published in 2009, "Funda's Kitchen Guide" in 2011, and "White Turks Are Offended" in 2013. She played a significant role as a compiler in the four-volume "Texts Shaping the West" and the two-volume "Texts Shaping Us" published by Kapadokya Vocational School Publications. This work, which was carried out for the first time in Turkey, shed light on an intellectual adventure of nearly three years in both the West and the Islamic world. "It's Not Enough to Say This Is How I Think!" published in 2018, draws attention to the rules of reasoning and judgment.

Additionally, Alatlı has books consisting of her interviews titled "Turkey and the World with Alev Alatlı," and collections of newspaper articles including "If Not Now, When?" in 2002, "One Must Be Able to Say No!" in 2003, "Remember! The Past is the Future" in 2004, "Without Comments" in 2008, and "The Path of Reasoning Is Not the Only One" in 2009.