Hasan Ali Toptaş

Author · 14 books

Hasan Ali Toptaş, a truck driver’s son, was born in Baklan, southwest Anatolia, in 1958. After completing his military service, he survived by doing odd jobs until he found a position at the Office of Inland Revenue. He worked in various small towns as a bailiff and treasurer, and finally as a tax officer. Following the publication of a few short stories in journals and anthologies, he paid for the printing of his first volume of stories Bir Gülüşün Kimliği in 1987. He submitted his second novel Gölgesizler (1995) to the Yunus Nadi Prize jury, and won. This novel was later adapted into a feature film (2007). Toptaş has received many other awards, including the Cevdet Kudret Liteary Award for his novel Bin Hüzünlü Haz (1999) and the Orhan Kemal Award for Best Novel for Uykuların Doğusu (2005). Yalnızlıklar (1990), poetic texts he constructed as a series of encyclopedia entries, has been successfully adapted to the stage. Toptaş retired in 2005, and since then has dedicated himself fulltime to his writing. His most recent book, the novel Heba (2013), will be published in English by Bloomsbury in 2015, and is to be followed by the English translation of Gölgesizler. Toptaş’s work has been published in many languages, including Dutch, French, German and Korean.