Oya Baydar was born in 1940 and is a graduate of Sociology at Istanbul University, Turkey. She taught at Hacettepe and Istanbul Universities until she was imprisoned in 1971 for political reasons. She lived in Germany for about twelve years as a political refugee. In her works she depicts the collapse of the socialist system with anger and sorrow. The human dimension of the political upheavals she witnessed are foregrounded in her short story collection Farewell Alyosha, published by Can, Turkey, for which she won the 1991 Sait Faik Short Story Award. In 2000 she won the Orhan Kemal Novel Award.
 | Oya Baydar |