Aslı Erdoğan is a Turkish author and human rights activist who began her career as a particle physicist at CERN. She has authored eight books and is best known for her writing that explores themes of exile and institutional oppression. Following her imprisonment in 2016, she relocated to Germany where she lives in exile.
Aslı Erdoğan began her career as a particle physicist at CERN before pivoting to a prolific life in literature. Since her debut in the early 1990s, she has authored eight books spanning novels, novellas, and essay collections. Her writing, translated into twenty languages, frequently explores themes of exile, illness, and the institutional forces that interrupt personal lives.
Scientific Foundations and Early Writing
Born in Istanbul in 1967, Erdoğan attended Robert College and later the Boğaziçi University, where she studied computer engineering. Her scientific career included research at CERN from 1991 to 1993, during which she earned an MSc in physics. She began doctoral research in Rio de Janeiro before transitioning to full-time writing in 1996. Her literary start occurred earlier, as her story The Final Farewell Note earned third prize in the 1990 Yunus Nadi Writing Competition.
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Erdoğan published her first novel, Kabuk Adam (Crust Man), in 1994, followed by a series of interconnected stories titled Mucizevi Mandarin in 1996. Her novel Kırmızı Pelerinli Kent, translated into English as The City in Crimson Cloak, depicts a protagonist struggling against the backdrop of Rio de Janeiro. Another significant work, The Stone Building and Other Places, serves as an anthology of short stories and a novella using architecture as a metaphor for oppressive systems, including police headquarters and psychiatric asylums.
Journalism, Imprisonment, and Exile
Erdoğan contributed columns to the newspapers Radikal and the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem. Her work for the latter led to her arrest on 16 August 2016, following a police raid on the newspaper’s advisory board. She spent four months in pretrial detention. Following her release and the subsequent lifting of a travel ban in June 2017, she relocated to Germany. She currently lives in exile, continuing a career defined by her roles as an author and a human rights defender.
Awards and International Recognition
Erdoğan has received extensive international recognition for her contributions to literature and human rights. Notable honors include the Kurt Tucholsky Prize in 2016, the Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize in 2017, and the Simone de Beauvoir Prize in 2018. Her work has been adapted for various media, including theater productions in Milan, Graz, and Avignon, as well as radio and classical ballet.
Fast facts
- Born: 8 March 1967, Istanbul
- Education: Robert College, Boğaziçi University
- Former profession: Particle physicist at CERN
- Key novel: Kırmızı Pelerinli Kent
- Languages: Turkish
- Current status: Living in exile in Germany
Questions readers ask
Why was Aslı Erdoğan arrested?
She was arrested in 2016 for her membership on the advisory board of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem.
How many languages has her work been translated into?
Her books have been translated into twenty languages, including English, German, and French.
