Turgut Uyar

Poet (b. 1927, Ankara – d. 22 August 1985, İstanbul). He graduated from Bursa Military High School (1946) and the Military Officers School (1947). His first posting army was to Posof. Afterwards, he was appointed to the Terme Draft Office and then Ankara. He gave up working as an officer in 1958 and started to work at the Ankara bureau of the Turkey Cellulose and Paper Factories Corporation. He moved to İstanbul when he retired in 1969. He divorced in the same year and married the writer Tomris Uyar. His health became worse because of his alcohol addiction in later years.

His first poem Yol (The Way) was published in the review Yedigün (22.06.1947, issue: 46). His other poems were published in the reviews Varlık, Yeditepe, Pazar Postası, Dost, Değişim, Türk Dili, Yeni Dergi and in Dönem and Papirüs (1966-72), of which he was one of the founders. He was against being known and classified as a poet of the “Second New Movement” and was always experimenting. He experimented with Divan* poetry in his book Divan (1970). He won the 1963 Yeditepe Poetry Prize with his book Tütünler Islak (The Tobacco is Wet, 1962), the 1982 Behçet Necatigil Poetry Award with Kayayı Delen İncir (The Fig That Pierces the Stone) and the 1984 Sedat Simavi Foundation Literature Award with Büyük Saat (The Great Clock, 1981), in which are collected all his poems including previously unpublished ones. His complete works started to be published by Yapı Kredi Publications in 2002.

WORKS:

POETRY: Arz-ı Hal (The Petition, 1949), Türkiyem (My Turkey, 1952), Dünyanın En Güzel Arabistanı (The Greatest Arabia of the World, 1959), Tütünler Islak (The Tobacco is Wet, 1962), Her Pazartesi (Every Monday, 1968), Divan (Divan*, 1970), Toplandılar (They Gathered, 1974), Kayayı Delen İncir (The Fig That Pierces the Stone, 1981), Büyük Saat / Bütün Şiirleri (The Great Clock / All Poems, 1981, re-publication of his complete poetry including a new chapter with the same title, 2002), Dün Yok mu? (No Yesterday?, 1984), Sonsuz ve Öbürü (Eternity and the Next, 1985), Bütün Şiirleri (All Poems, in 3 volumes, 1994).

RESEARCH: Bir Şiirden (From a Poem, 1983).    REFERENCE: Mehmet Kaplan / Cumhuriyet Devri Türk Şiiri-II (1973), Turgut Uyar’ın “Büyük Saat”i (incelemesel eleştiri, Varlık, sayı: 937, Ekim 1985), Sezai Karakoç / Edebiyat Yazıları-II (1986), İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Edebiyatçılar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 4, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Emine Edibe / Turgut Uyar ve Borges (Kırklar, sayı: 5, Ocak 2004), Ali Bayram / Turgut Uyar’da Suyun Simgelediğidir (Kökler, sayı: 7, Ekim 2004), Yakup Altınyaprak / Edip Cansever ve Turgut Uyar Şiirinde Modern Yaşamın Parametreleri (Dergâh, sayı: 172, Haziran 2004), Fatih Altuğ / Onunla O Eksik Geldi (Yasak Meyve, sayı: 15, Temmuz-Ağustos 2005).