Sixty Years as a Poet: Symposium Honors Hilmi Yavuz
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in cooperation with MEKAM (the Research Center for Civilization and Culture), has presented a symposium honoring Bilkent University faculty member Hilmi Yavuz.
Entitled "Hilmi Yavuz in his 60th Year as a Poet," the symposium was held at the Legacy Ottoman Hotel in İstanbul on December 8. It was opened by remarks from Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, former National Education Minister Assoc. Prof. Hüseyin Çelik and Prof. İlber Ortaylı. Ambassador Prof. Kenan Gürsoy, Rector Prof. Serdar Bedii Omay, authors Doğan Hızlan and Nilüfer Kuyaş, and film director Derviş Zaim were among the academicians, artists and others who participated in the symposium.
The event constituted the celebration of a man who has devoted 60 years of his life to poetry. While most of the speeches thus focused on Mr. Yavuz's understanding of poetry and poems, other presentations concerned his thoughts on religion, philosophy and culture, and his multifaceted career as a newspaper writer and teacher as well as a poet. The speakers discussed such topics as his original poetic views, his thesis of civilization and Islamic aesthetics, his understanding of postmodernity and his search for a philosophy at the crossroads of East and West.
Among the hallmarks of Mr. Yavuz's writing has been his search for sources of modern Turkish poetry in Ottoman poetry, providing inspiration for following generations of poets. Previous honors he has received include the Writers Union of Turkey Award, the Yeditepe Poetry Prize and the Sedat Simavi Foundation Award, as well as Chile's Presidential Medal of Honor and honorary doctorates from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.