Fatma Nezihe Araz

Fatma Nezihe Araz — Biography

More than half a century of journalism sat alongside poetry, research books, stage plays and screenwriting in the work of Turkish writer Fatma Nezihe Araz. She first reached a wide readership with Anadolu Evliyaları, a 1959 book on the saints of Anatolia that was a great commercial success and broke sales records. Known also for her books on Atatürk, Araz held the State Artist title and died in Istanbul in 2009.

She graduated from Ankara Girls' High School and then from Ankara University's Faculty of Language and History-Geography, and worked as an assistant to Behice Boran, but left the academic path when Boran was removed from the university in 1948. She entered literature with the 1950 poetry collection Benim Dünyam and began in journalism at the magazine Resimli Hayat, later working at publications such as Yeni Sabah and Milliyet. Her books of the 1950s and 1960s turned to religious and historical biography: Fatih'in Deruni Tarihi, Dertli Dolap and Aşk Peygamberi.

From 1973 she wrote plays for television. Her first full-length play, Bozkır Güzellemesi, was staged by the State Theatres in the 1974-75 season. With Öyle Bir Nevcivan she won the 1984 Muhsin Ertuğrul Theatre Award, and with Afife Jale, about the first Turkish actress, the 1987 Ministry of Culture Best Playwright Award. Her scripts O Kadın, İhtiras Fırtınası and Hanım were filmed. After 1993 she wrote books on Atatürk such as Mustafa Kemal'le 1000 Gün, and her journalism was honoured with the Burhan Felek Media Award in 2003.