Ayfer Tunç: The Satire of The Thousand and One Nights

The author of prose, radio plays and movie scripts. She was born in Adapazarı, north-western Turkey, in 1964 and is a graduate of the Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences. During her studies, she wrote articles and short stories for literary and cultural magazines. Her short story titled Saklı [Hidden] received the first prize in the Yunus Nadi Short Story Competition organized by the daily Cumhuriyet newspaper, and three years later, she published her first novel Kapak Kızı [Cover Girl]. The satirical study of life in Turkey in the 1970s, Bir Mâniniz Yoksa Annemler Size Gelecek [My Parents Will Visit You If You Aren’t Occupied], has earned wide attention. In one of her essays, Tunç comments on the situation young Turkish literature finds itself in: “Perceived from the West, Turkey starts at the point where the East starts. Perceived from the East, it’s the other way around. Modern Turkish literature is pulsing with life and reflects all the dynamics of our age, many young authors make me feel hopeful. But although they are burdened with prejudice less than their predecessors, and they are more curious and enthusiastic, the West can’t or won’t see their literary achievements.”