Biography

Erendiz Atasü

MORE THAN 40 YEARS AS A WRITER

Erendiz Atasü was born in Ankara in 1947. She graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University in 1968, and was a professor of pharmacognosy in the same institution until her retirement in 1997.

Her short stories written with a feminist consciousness have been published in literary journals such as Sanat Edebiyat '81, Düşün, Çağdaş Türk Dili, and Varlık and her essays and articles on literary topics, on women issues, secular society and Republican reforms in various journals and dailies.

She has eight novels, nine story collections, ten collections of essays, and various awards. Some of her short stories have been translated to other languages and been published in anthologies in Great Britain, United States, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy , Czech Republic, and Croatia.

Her novels, DAĞIN ÖTEKİ YÜZÜ  and BİR YAŞDÖNÜMÜ RÜYASI have  been translated into English by the titles of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN and A MIDLIFE DREAM respectively, and  published in Britain.

DAĞIN ÖTEKİ YÜZÜ and a short story collection of hers, UYY KARADENİZ UY (LANETLİLER) have been translated into German and published in Germany by the respective titles of Die andere Seite des Berges, and Das Lied des Meeres.

BİR YAŞDÖNÜMÜ RÜYASI has been translated into Greek and published in Greece, by the name of ON EIPO STHAN KLIMAKTHRIO.

Atasü's work has been subject to various literary research from the point of view of both context and form. Problematic themes such as the alternative history of women, surveying the Republican reforms with a feminine perspective, the conceptualization of sexual relationships and feminine sexuality by women themselves; and textualities such as the usage of imagery and language have been worked upon.

A symposium on Atasü's work was held by Yeniyüzyıl University in İstanbul during 24-25 may, 2012 (Second Symposium on Women Writers) where Atasü's fiction was discussed from the stand points of the tension in her textes, feminist and distopic elements, and reflections of the creative process in her work.

The symposium book prepared by Prof. Dr. Günseli Sönmez İşçi has been published by Can publisihing house (İstanbul) by the name of "Erendiz Atasü Edebiyatı" ("The Literature of Erendiz Atasü"). Alev Önder has prepared a doctorate thesis on her work which has been published by the Akademisyen press(Ankara) by the name of ‘’Erendiz Atasü’nün Eserlerinde Kadın’’ (‘’Women in Erendiz Atasü’s Works’’).