Yaşar Kemal, one of the greatest Turkish authors of all time, is a major figure of world literature.
Born in the centre of Turkey in the 1920s, he began writing in the 1940s. Among his best-known novels and stories are Memed, My Hawk (1955), and its following three sequels (1969, 1984, 1987); The Wind from the Plain trilogy (1960, 1963, 1968), and The Legend of a Thousand Bulls (1971). A writer famed for strong, vivid language, Kemal collects the rich cultural sediment deposited across Turkey to create masterful works of fiction that span folklore and philosophy, lyric and tradition with the ease of a bard. He has written more than twenty-five books, been translated into 40 languages and is the recipient of more than twenty international awards including Prix mondial Cino del Duca, Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur de France, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres of the French Ministry of Culture, Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur de France, Premi Internacional Cataluña, Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, as well as seven honorary doctorates. Widely considered as a writer who symbolises his country, he is Homer for modern times.