Tanyol is one of the most proudly Istanbuliote poets - "İstanbullu" in Turkish - of today's literature. His poetry reveals a perfect symbiosis of a European imagination, French culture and a deep knowledge of the Ottoman and modern Turkish literary heritage. This symbiosis makes it hard to pigeonhole Tanyol's poetryinto specific genres and currents, although his work from the early 1980s on went in the direction detatching poetry from the rigidity of socialist realism, giving it a lyrical and deeply introspective tone. For the poets of the "Generation of the Eighties," of which Tanyol is the finest intellectual, poetry is a way to observe the world from one's own interiority. His voice liberates a musicality and a fluidity that are hard to imitate (from the preface by Nicola Verderame).

Biographical information

Tuğrul Tanyol was born in Istanbul in 1953. He studied in the high schools Saint Joseph and Kabataş Erkek Lisesi, majoring in Sociology at the prestigious Bosphorus University in 1977 and obtained a doctorate from the University of Istanbul. Currently she teaches at Yeditepe University, also in Istanbul. He began writing poetry in the 1970s, but he made his debut in the next decade with the publication of the collection "Elinden Günü Tutun" ( "Hold the day by hand", 1983). His second book, "Ağustos Dehlizleri" ( "The mazes of August", 1985) was awarded the prize for poetry "Behçet Necatigil". Translated in several languages, regularly participates in international festivals, in particular in South America, where his anthology "Los Laberintos de agosto y otros poemas" (2003) was met with enthusiasm.

Next to poetry, Tuğrul Tanyol has published numerous interventions of literary theory and criticism, recently collected in the book "İyi Şiir Koalisyonu" ( "The Coalition of Good Poetry", 2015), and was among the promoters of literary magazines that have had a profound impact on the landscape of the Turkish poetry from the eighties to the present. His latest collection, "Gelecek Günlerin Şarabı" ( "Wine of the days to come", 2015) was awarded the prestigious poetry prize Metin Altıok 2016.

Curator: Nicola Verderame

Winner of Carrier Prize Europa in Versi, Como, Italy, 2017

Reviews

Review on Fondo Turri Notiziario

Press review