Ferit Edgü

Ferit Edgü — Biography

Ferit Edgü was a defining voice of the 1950 Generation in Turkish short fiction, essays and the novel, and also a painter, poet, publisher and art collector. A wide readership knew him through O / Hakkâri'de Bir Mevsim (A Season in Hakkari), the novel born of his time as a soldier-teacher in Hakkari. His work has been translated into many languages. He died in Istanbul on 22 July 2024, aged 88, and was buried at Aşiyan Cemetery.

He began with poetry, his first poem appearing in 1952, and drew attention with stories and essays in magazines such as Yeni Ufuklar, Mavi and Dost. While studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts he went to Munich and then Paris to study ceramics; there he spent about six years on ceramics and took courses in philosophy at the Sorbonne and art history at the Louvre. He returned in 1964 and did his military service, and his teaching years in the village of Pirkanis in Hakkari fed Hakkâri'de Bir Mevsim and later eastern stories, above all Doğu Öyküleri. The novel was adapted for the screen with Onat Kutlar; the film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival but was banned in Turkey for a time.

In 1976 he founded Ada Yayınları and, until 1990, published about 140 books: poetry and literature, but also books on painting and art history, known for careful design and limited, numbered editions. His prizes include the 1979 Sait Faik Short Story Award (Bir Gemide), the Turkish Language Association Essay Award the same year (Tüm Ders Notları) and the 1988 Sedat Simavi Literature Award (Eylülün Gölgesinde Bir Yazdı).