Leading writers, poets attend 19th İzmir Book Fair

İZMİR - Anadolu Agency

The book fair will continue until April 27 at the International İzmir Fair Area.

The 19th İzmir Book Fair opened on April 19 with the participation of 405 publishing houses and civil society organizations, and 800 poets and writers. This year’s fair features 145 events including talks, panels, poetry readings and children activities.

The honorary guest of the fair is writer Feyza Hepçilingirler. In his opening speech, Hepçilingirler was presented a plaque by the Turkish Publishers Union President Metin Celal.

A graduate of Istanbul University Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Hepçilingirler started her writing career with the poems published in various journals in İzmir under the penname Feyza Baran. Holding many awards, she first aroused interest with her book, with the Turkish title “Off,” in which she criticized incorrect usage of Turkish language. This book has been published 39 times. In addition to writing for many journals, she is also writing a column, The Diaries of Turkish Language, in daily Cumhuriyet.

Many writers and poets including Hürriyet Publishing Consultant Doğan Hızlan, historian İlber Ortaylı, Gülten Dayıoğlu, Canan Tan, Muzaffer İzgü, Füruzan, Ercan Kesal, Murathan Mungan, Yılmaz Özdil, Can Dündar, Ayfer Tunç, İlker Başbuğ, Deniz Kavukçuoğlu, Sunay Akın, and others will be the guests of the fair, which will ned on April 27.

Due to the 100th birthday of one of Turkey’s leading 20th century poets Oktay Rifat, and the 99th birthday of poet Melih Cevdet Anday, the theme of this year’s fair is “Garip Poets Turns 100,” referring to Turkish poetry’s “Garip” modernist movement.