Aysel Özakın

Aysel Ozakin
Occupation Turkish-British writer

Aysel Ingham (née Özakın) 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 future 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, remaining on friendly terms. [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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