Aysel Özakın

Aysel Ozakin
Occupation Turkish-British writer

Aysel Ingham (née Özakin) is a Turkish-British novelist and playwright. She has written predominantly in English for over 25 years, although she has also published in three other languages (French, Turkish, and German).[1] She also publishes under the names Ada, Anna, or Ana Ingham.

Career

Özakın was born in Şanlıurfa and studied French in Ankara and in Paris, then worked as a lecturer in Istanbul (at Atatürk Egitim Enstitusu, which is now part of Marmara University).[2] Her literary activity was repeatedly praised by literary critics.[1][3][4] A good example of her sensitive, accurate observational prose is a 1975 Turkish language novel under the title Gurbet Yavrum, which was translated to German in 1987, under the title The Flying Carpet.[3]

Three months after the 1980 Turkish military coup, Aysel Özakın left Turkey to attend the Berlin Literary Colloquium.[5]

Özakin considers herself a universalist writer, whose subject matter and protagonists are increasingly international.[5] Through her work, she has striven to cast off any stereotypical labels that would typically have been placed on her as a female author who works in a multitude of languages, and with characters set within a variety of cultural backdrops.[6][7][8]

Personal life

She met her would-be husband, the English painter and sculptor Bryan Ingham, in Worpswede, Germany. Özakın moved to Cornwall, England in 1988 to escape the limitations of publishing in Germany,[9] and married him in 1989. They lived together there until their separation in 1994, and resumed their relationship 1996.[10] She has resided in England since then, and writes her works solely in English.

Bibliography

[11][12]

Awards

Notes

  1. 1 2 Arlene A. Teraoka, "Turkish-German literature," in The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature, ed. Friederike Ursula Eigler and Susanne Kord (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997), 529.
  2. ↑ Aysel Özakin at Munzinger.
  3. 1 2 Ülker Gökberk, "Encounters with the Other in German Cultural Discourse," in Other Germanies: Questioning Identity in Women's Literature and Art edited by Karen Hermine Jankowsky and Carla Love, 28.
  4. ↑ Bob Corbett, "Review of Prizegiving by Aysel Ozakin
  5. 1 2 Sabine Fisher, "Özakin, Aysel," in Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture, edited by John Sandford (Routledge, 2013).
  6. ↑ Blackshire-Belay, C. (1994). The Germanic Mosaic: Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Society. Greenwood Press. p. 249. ISBN 9780313286292. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  7. ↑ Brinker-Gabler, G.; Smith, S. (1997). Writing New Identities: Gender, Nation, and Immigration in Contemporary Europe. University of Minnesota Press. p. 237. ISBN 9780816624614. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  8. ↑ Cheesman, T. (2007). Novels of Turkish German Settlement: Cosmopolite Fictions. Camden House. p. 92. ISBN 9781571133748. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  9. ↑ Horrocks, D.; Kolinsky, E. (1996). Turkish Culture in German Society Today. Berghahn Books. p. 21. ISBN 9781571818997. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  10. ↑ "Obituary: Bryan Ingham – Obituaries – News – The Independent". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  11. ↑ List at German Amazon.com
  12. ↑ List at British Amazon.com
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