Ece Temelkuran was born in Izmir, Turkey, in 1973. Before graduating in law from Ankara University in 1995, she worked as a journalist for Turkey\u2019s oldest newspaper \u00bbCumhuriyet\u00ab and in 1996 published her first book \u00bbB\u00fct\u00fcn Kad\u0131nlar\u0131n Kafas\u0131 Kar\u0131\u015f\u0131kt\u0131r\u00ab [tr: All Women Are Confused], in which she denounces the high and contradictory demands of society on women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was a political columnist for \u00bbMilliyet\u00ab from 2000\u20132009 and regularly contributed to international media outlets. In 2010, she moved to \u00bbHabert\u00fcrk\u00ab, where she wrote columns and hosted her own television program until 2012. She was dismissed for an article critical of the government but found a new home at the online magazine \u00bbGuernica\u00ab and the \u00bbGuardian\u00ab, among others. Her investigative work on controversial topics such as the Kurdish conflict, the women\u2019s movement, and political prisoners has been awarded many prizes, including the German state prize for the best journalist of the year [1996] and the Pen for Peace [2001]. In addition to nonfiction books such as \u00bbA\u011fr\u0131’n\u0131n Derinli\u011fi\u00ab [2008; Eng. \u00bbDeep Mountain\u00ab, 2010], a nuanced account of the bloody rift between Turkey and Armenia, Temelkuran has also published poetry. In \u00bb\u0130\u00e7 Kitab\u0131\u00ab [2002; tr: The Book of the Inside], she embarks on a journey to an undiscovered continent within herself, and in \u00bbBook of the Edge\u00ab [2010], she invites readers to become researchers and to question the ignorance and cruelty of their existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2010, she published her first novel \u00bbMuz Sesleri\u00ab [tr: Banana Sounds], which tells the story of two young women, one sent to Lebanon from the Philippines, the other a Turkish student \u2013 two lives that at first seem to have no connection at all, but whose stories intersect in Beirut. Her novel \u00bbD\u00fc\u011f\u00fcmlere \u00dcfleyen Kad\u0131nlar\u00ab [2013; Eng. \u00bbWomen Who Blow on Knots\u00ab, 2017] refers to the Quranic verse al-Falaq about protection from \u00bbevil women\u00ab who, in the narrative, flee from the male-dominated Arab world in search of themselves. It won the PEN Award [2016] and the Edinburgh Literature Festival Award [2017]. Temelkuran was named Ambassador of a New Europe for \u00bbTurkey: The Insane and the Melancholy\u00ab [2016], which takes an unsparing look at her country. In her bestseller \u00bbThe Time of Mute Swans\u00ab [2017], which resonates with current conditions in Turkey, she recounts a military coup from the perspective of two children. Her acclaimed \u00bbHow to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship\u00ab [2019] scrutinizes the international rise of populism and the decline of democracy and has been translated into more than ten languages. \u00bbTogether: 10 Choices for a Better Now\u00ab [2021] is a contemporary manifesto calling for a vote of no confidence in the powerful and their destructive systems and for shaping the present ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Temelkuran was named an honorary citizen of Palermo in 2019 and is a council member of Progressive International. She is currently a fellow at The New Institute, Hamburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Date: 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61169,"template":"","jct-role":[1080],"jct-origin":[559,551],"jct-ilb-years":[608,611,615,616],"class_list":["post-39497","authors","type-authors","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","jct-role-author","jct-origin-croatia","jct-origin-turkey","jct-ilb-years-2014-en","jct-ilb-years-2017-en","jct-ilb-years-2021-en","jct-ilb-years-2022-en"],"yoast_head":"\n