APersonIndependent states
Yaşar Kemal
Great novelist (1923–2015) who wrote of life on the Çukurova plain in an epic voice; author of Memed, My Hawk.
Yaşar Kemal was born in Hemite near Osmaniye on the Çukurova plain. He lost an eye as a child and worked as a cotton-field labourer, clerk and assistant teacher, while collecting oral literature from minstrels.
Memed, My Hawk (İnce Memed, 1955), the story of a young villager who takes to the mountains against the tyranny of the landlords, grew into four volumes and made him world-famous. Works such as The Legend of Ararat and The Wind from the Plain also carry the spirit of folk epics.
His books have been translated into more than 40 languages, and he was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize. He died in Istanbul in 2015.
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Updated: October 2, 2026