Mehmet Altun

For Mehmet Altun (born 1977, Kars, Turkey) “the East” is the land of divine creation. It is a region whose historical and traditional roots run deep, an archive that forms a unity out of beliefs and civilisation. He writes above all about the lives of the people in East Anatolia. Altun writes in Kurdish and Turkish.

In 2005 Altun founded the literary magazine “Üç Nokta” (Three Points) with two friends, and was for a while its chief editor. His columns and articles on current issues were published in the critical newspapers “Sabah Gazetesi”, “BirGün Gazetesi” and “Taraf Gazetesi”.

Altun studied Literary Studies, Archeology and Art History and works for the Institute of Social Sciences at İstanbul University. Since 1998 he has worked as a journalist and as an editor in a publishing house. He writes literary reviews for the daily paper “Akşam” and cultural and political essays for the daily paper “Birgün“. In 2004 Mehmet Altun received the “Yaşar Nabi Nayır Şiir Mansiyonu“ Prize, in 2012 the “Ahmet Necdet Şiir” Prize and in 2013 he was awarded the Prize “Comune di Ostana – La Lingua Madre”, an international Prize for native-language poetry.

 

Publications (selected)

Rüyamda Hayat Vardı, Babil Yayınları 2004
Su Zılgıtları, Babil Yayınları 2008
Yukarı Deniz, Babil Yayınları 2008
Lapis Lazuli, Babil Yayınları 2011