Poet (b. 30 August 1948, Kuşluca village /
Sürmene / Trabzon).
He attended Trabzon Gazipaşa Primary School
(1959) and graduated from Trabzon High School (secondary level, 1962), Kilis High School
(1965) and from İstanbul
University, Faculty of
Literature, Department of Turkish Language and Literature (1971). His
graduation thesis was on "Sürmene Ağzı ve Folkloru" (Local Dialect and Folklore of Sürmene, 1971). He
worked as a literature teacher in Diyarbakır
(1972-74), Gemlik (1974-77), Bursa
(1977-78), Kocaeli (1978-83) and Gölcük (1983-94). He studied as a Turkish
Language lecturer at Kocaeli
University in 1994. In
the same year he was appointed as the Head of the Turkish Language Department.
In 1995, he established Kocaeli Univesity’s Department of Poetry Activities, in
other words a School
of Poetry. He was
appointed as the General Director of the Poetry School
in 1996. He worked there until 1998. He was appointed at Kocaeli University
as the General Director of Media and Public Affairs in 1998, a post he left
1999. He was appointed again as the General Director of the Department of
Poetry Activities in 2002. He is a member of the Writers Syndicate of Turkey,
the Association of Writers of Literary and Scientific Works of Turkey, the
Education Workers Union and the Turkish Authors Association.
His first poem Aydınlık (Illumination) was published in the newspaper Hududeli (Kilis) in 1964. In the
following years he published his poems and essays in the newspapers and
magazines, Kilis Kent, Çağdaş Türkiye, Cumhuriyet
Kitap, Papirüs, Eski, Berfin Bahar, Kadın, Ilgaz, Ozanca, Güney Damla, Çağdaş
Türk Dili Dergisi, Poetikus, Yaşasın Edebiyat, Damar, Güzel Yazılar, Karşı and Şiir Ülkesi and in similar magazines
and newspapers. He has been the editor of the poetry magazine Gökyüzü, the publication organ of Kocaeli University’s Department of Poetry
Activities, since 1996. He received the Swedish Humanist International Poetry
Honorary Award with his work named Gökyüzünü
Yitiren Kuş (The Bird Who Lost the Sky). With his last book, he received
the Ş. Avni Ölez Poetry Endeavor Award. His words and melodies are included in
the musical work “Atatürk Oratorio”
WORKS (Poetry):
Üçüncü
Mevki Duygular (Third Class Feelings,
1969), Yarınsız Sayfaları Yırtıyorum
(I am Tearing the Pages Without Tomorrow, English translation in the same year,
1975), Arayış Yol Arıyor (Searching
Searches for a Way, 1990), Gökyüzünü
Yitiren Kuş (The Bird Who Lost the Sky, 1994), O Yitik Kıpırtı (That Last Quiver, 1996), Yaşam Avuçlarımızda Sonsuzveren
Gül (Life is a Forever Blooming Rose, 2003).
