Cahide Birgül

Writer (B. April 9, 1956, Ankara – D. 2009, Ankara). Her full name is Cahide Birgül Sesveren. She has completed her primary school education in Erzurum; and secondary and high school in Ankara. She graduated from Ankara DMMA Faculty of Architecture. She worked for fifteen years in state institutions as an architect and was retired in 1999. She continued her works in Istanbul.

She started her career as an author with “Arkası Yarın” vignettes and radio plays. Almost twenty of her plays were staged. Her play called “Kaplumbağa Sever misiniz?” was send to Voice of Europe radio to represent Turkey. She has received Motivation Award with her work “Biblolar” in the play contest with the theme mother-daughter, organized by Women Works Library. Her work  “Photographs” was staged in Tiyatrokare within the framework of workshop organized by Nedim Saban. Her articles were published in Radikal newspaper and Pazartesi magazine. Her radio plays were vocalized in TRT Ankara Radio and she wrote texts for TRT Istanbul Television. She received the third degree in 1999 State Theatres Theatre Play Contest with her play “Emin Bey Pansiyonu.”

Her work Geceye Uyananlar is about the suspicion, fear and lack of communication created by hidden violence and oppression and their devastating effects on the family, the micro unit of the society. The novel is shaped with the descriptions of two siblings; and the inner world of family members was presented almost from the perspective of a psychiatrist, sometimes supported with the elements of frustration. In her first novel, she focused on a homosexual love.

“Birgül’s work is elite and it has different characteristics. It is actually a very important development to have such a novel in our current literature world. It is very different and unique. “A spiritual puzzle”…With this feature, it appears as a rare sample in our literature.” (Orhan Duru)

WORKS:

NOVEL: Gölgeler Çekildiğinde (1998), Geceye Uyananlar (2000), Ah Tutku Beni Öldürür müsün (2004).

INTERVIEW: Aklın Yolu Birdir (Interview with T. S. Halman, 2003).

REFERENCE: TBE Ansiklopedisi (vol. 1, 2001), Söyleşi (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 8.3.2001), İhsan Işık (TEKAA, 2009).