Ayfer Tunç

Ayfer Tunç — Biography

Ayfer Tunç is one of the best-known voices in contemporary Turkish fiction, writing both short stories and novels, and has also worked as an editor and screenwriter. In November 2025 she was awarded the France-Turkey Fernand Rouillon Literature Prize, and her latest novel, Annemin Uyurgezer Geceleri, appeared the same year.

She began writing for literary and cultural magazines while studying at the Faculty of Political Sciences, and in 1989 worked as a journalist at the magazine Sokak and the newspapers Güneş and Yeni Yüzyıl. That year she won the Yunus Nadi Short Story Prize with Saklı. Her early books were mainly stories: Mağara Arkadaşları (1996), Aziz Bey Hadisesi (2000) and Taş - Kağıt - Makas (2003). From 1999 to 2004 she was editorial director at Yapı Kredi Publications. Bir Maniniz Yoksa Annemler Size Gelecek, published in 2001, won the Balkanika Award in 2003, was slated for translation into six Balkan languages and was also published in Arabic in Syria and Lebanon. She then published novels with Can Yayınları, among them Evvelotel, Bir Deliler Evinin Yalan Yanlış Anlatılan Kısa Tarihi, Yeşil Peri Gecesi, Suzan Defter, Dünya Ağrısı, Âşıklar Delidir ya da Yazı Tura, Osman and Kuru Kız. Some of her works have appeared in English through Istros Books.

Her script Havada Bulut, drawn from stories by Sait Faik, was shown on TRT in 2003; she worked on the screenplays of the films Usta and 72. Koğuş and was part of the writing teams of the series Aliye and Binbir Gece.