Gulten AkinGülten Akin was born in 1933. A poet with a unique voice that appeals both to individual sensibilities and a universal social conscience, she was acknowledged as the greatest living Turkish poet in 2008. She studied Law at Ankara University and worke as a lawyer and teacher in various parts of Anatolia where she lived and travelled with her husband and children for many years. Her major poetry collections include Rüzgâr Saati / Hour of the Wind (1956), Kestim Kara Saçlarımı / I Cut My Black Black Hair (1960), Sığda / In the Shallows (1964), Kırmızı Karanfıl / The Red Carnation (1971), Maraş'ın ve Ökkeş'in Destanı / Epic of Maraş and Ökkeş (1972), Ağıt-lar ve Türküler / Laments and Songs (1976), Seyran Destanı / Epic of Seyran (1979), Ilahiler / Hymns (1983), 42 Günün şiirleri / Poems of 42 Days (1986), Sevda Kalıcıdır / Love is Lasting (1991), Sonra Işte Yaşlandım / Then I Grew Old (1995), Sessiz Arka Bahçeler / Silent Back Gardens (1998), Uzak Bir Kıyıda / On a Distant Shore (2003), Kuş Uçsa Gölge Kalır / Bird Flies, Shadow Stays (2007), Celâlîler Destanı / Epic of the Celâlî (2007), Deli Kızın Türküsü / Song of the Crazy Girl (2012). Her critical prose was published in Şiiri Düzde Ku-şatmak / Besieging Poetry on the Plain (1996) and Şiir üzerine Notlar / Notes on Poetry (1996). Almost all her collections have been awarded prestigious prizes in Turkey, and her work is represented in all national and international anthologies of Turkish literature / poetry; the most recent one of these is From This Bridge: Contemporary Turkish Women Poets, by George Messo, published in the UK in 2008. Her poems have also been translated into German, Flemish, Danish, Italian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Polish, Spanish and Hebrew, and used in academic studies. Hilal Sürsal's Voice of Hope: Turkish Woman Poet Gülten Akın is an in-depth study of her life and work, published in the USA in 2008. Gülten Akın has five children and many grandchildren, and lives with her husband in Burhaniye, on the northern Aegean coast of Turkey. Read More Read Less
