Emine Sevgi Özdamar

Emine Sevgi Özdamar — Biography

Emine Sevgi Özdamar (; born 10 August 1946) is a writer, director, and actress of Turkish origin who has lived and worked in Germany since 1976. Özdamar's art is distinctive in that it is influenced by her life experiences, which straddle the countries of Germany and Turkey throughout times of turmoil in both. One of her most notable accomplishments is winning the 1991 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.

Özdamar's literary work has received much recognition and scholarly attention. A lover of poetry, she found great inspiration in the works of Heinrich Heine and Bertolt Brecht, especially from an album of the latter's songs which she had bought in the 1960s in Berlin. She later decided to study with Brecht's disciple Benno Besson in Berlin, where she resides.