A friend of mine studying literature at university once told me she was interested in reading some modern Turkish writers. I had a look round for some kind of guide in English and I was less than inspired by what I found. I hear there was once a good ‘Penguin Guide to Turkish Literature’ but I have never seen it. The material I found seemed very dry and academic, and not really up to the job of selling Turkish authors to a new potential audience.

I hope one day somebody asks me to translate such a guide, but in the meantime I’d like to build a brief layman’s guide for non-Turkish speakers interested in finding out about the literature. Just having a summary list of the names of translated authors can be useful and there is a compilation of translated novels on the page: list of translated works. I aim to give some basic background information, links to sites with more details in English and links to publishers to help readers find the novels. Where possible I will also give links to reviews of the translations on the internet.

It’s certainly won’t be an exhaustive list and it may take me a while to build it up. Also feel free to write to me with your suggestions. Click on the writers link for more information.