Ayşe Kulin

Ayşe Kulin — Biography

Ayşe Kulin is a Turkish novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, born in Istanbul on 26 August 1941. She studied literature at the American College for Girls in Arnavutköy, today's Robert College, and later studied sociology at the London School of Economics, before starting her career as a screenwriter, cinematographer and producer for film and television.

Her 1984 short-story collection Güneşe Dön Yüzünü launched her literary career; her story Foto Sabah Resimleri won both the Haldun Taner and Sait Faik prizes. She reached a wide readership with her 1997 biographical novel Adı: Aylin, which earned her a writer-of-the-year honor, and went on to write bestselling novels including Sevdalinka, set during the Bosnian War, Füreyya, a biographical novel about the ceramicist Füreya Koral, Köprü, about Turkey's eastern provinces, and Nefes Nefese, about Turkish diplomats who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

An honorary UNICEF ambassador in Turkey since 2007 and a longtime resident of Istanbul, Kulin is known for her fluent, accessible prose, and many of her works have been adapted for film and television. A short-story competition bearing her name held its second edition in 2026, and she continues to meet readers at events across the country.