Halil Gür
When Halil Gür (born in Turkey 1951) in 1984 made his bédut with his novel 'Grazy Mustafa and other stories', he was the pioneer of a large group of Dutch writers from non-western cultures. The fact that this novel also was a sales success and won several prices, such as the Ed. du Perron price, made of Halil Gür, to cite Kader Abdolah: "a pioneer to whom other autors of non-Dutch origin have a lot to be thankful for". Abdelkader Benali wrote in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad; "I discovered Halil Gür and that was a true present for me. How he writes about his childhood is beautiful and touching, everyone should read it." Abdelkader Benali composed a book with a collection of Dutch literature for children "The Dutch literature for children in 100 en a few stories" (Prometheus, 2009) where he included two stories of Halil Gür.
Photo by Turan Öz
Today he is a full-time autor, writing for children, youth and adults. Besides he is a poet and a story teller. he often performs at literary manifestations and reads from he's own work at schools and library's. He also gives poetry workshops at schools. In 1995 he performed at the "Night of poetry" and the daily television news (NOS-journaal) reported about him as the highlight of the evening.
The publisher Prometheus has put one of Halil's story's in the collection of story's "The desire to home. Most beautiful story's of nostalgia from the world literature". Halil Gür gets a lot of response and recognition of readers and critics, he's children books got several literal prices.
References
- Graeme Dunphy, "Migrant, Emigrant, Immigrant: Recent Developments in Turkish-Dutch Literature", Neophilologus, 85 (2001) 1-23.
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