Poet Küçük İskender dies aged 55  

ISTANBUL

Famous Turkish poet Derman İskender Öven, who is known as Küçük İskender, died July 2 at the age of 55.

He was diagnosed with cancer in June 2018 and had been under treatment in the intensive care unit at Paşabahçe State Hospital in Istanbul.

Born in 1964 in Istanbul, Küçük İskender started writing poems when he was a child. After graduating from Kabataş High School, he attended Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine at Istanbul University but left the department in his final year to study sociology at the university. He dropped out of that field of study three years later. 

The poet once explained why he left the school of medicine, saying, “I haven’t wanted to have a profession since I was a kid. My dream was cinema, theater and poetry. I still can’t make big money because I don’t have a job.”

During his lifetime, he wrote various kinds of literature, including poetry, novels and essays.

His works won the Orhon Murat Arıburnu Award in 2000, the Melih Cevdet Anday Poetry Award in 2006, the Erdal Öz Literature Award in 2014 and the Necatigil Poetry Award in 2017.

İskender also had a role in three films, including “Gönül Garip Bir Kuştur” (Bird of Heart) in 1989, “Ağır Roman” (Cholera Street) in 1997 and “O Şimdi Asker” (In the Army Now) in 2002. 

He will be buried in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery today after a ceremony at Kabataş High School.