Writer Erendiz Atasü Shares Her World
The Bilkent Library's "Turkish Writers at Bilkent" seminar series welcomed author Erendiz Atasü last week on April 18 at the Library Art Gallery. Born in Ankara in 1947, Ms. Atasü was a professor of pharmacognosy at Ankara University until her retirement in 1997. With a feminist consciousness and an interest in exploring and depicting the experiences of women in Turkey, she has published many novels, short stories and collections of essays.
In her talk, entitled "From the Writer's World to the Work of Art," Ms. Atasü explored the world of a writer referencing her own memories and experiences from childhood to the present. Describing what kind of a person an artist is, she emphasized the importance of imagination, declaring, "We all have a creative imaginative power inside us." The writer, specifically, whose "source is empathy," has the ability to imagine what it is like to be "in someone else's shoes."
Ms. Atasü also touched on issues such as society and morals, culture and belief, and the agenda of Turkey in general. She concluded her talk by stating, "We are living our lives superficially... We need to perceive our lives."