ARİFE KALENDER

She was born in Ermişli village of Arguvan district, Malatya. After having gone to the last year of the high school in the province she was born, Arife Kalender graduated from the Istanbul Fenerbahçe High School. Upon her graduation from the School of Foreign Languages, Istanbul University in 1977, she was appointed as a German language teacher at Kadıköy Anatolian Junior High School then later at Kadıköy Anatolian High School. She has served for many years as a teacher and administrator. Since 1997, she is retired.

Her first poems were published in the local magazines and newspapers in Malatya followed by her poetry appearance in 1970s in the literary magazine called “Yansıma – Reflection”.  Her first poetry book is entitled “Maviler de Eskidi – The Blue Colored Ones Got Also Old” published by Cem Publishing House in 1992.

Besides her own poems, she translated poems from the following poets: Erich Fried, Gerhard Hauptmann, Georg Trakl, Ulla Hahn, Rose Auslander, Else Lasker Schüler, Mascha Kaleko, Albert Ehrenstein, Erich Keastner, Hilde Domin. She analyzed around thirty Turkish poetry masters and these research works, which were published as an extended version by Kaynak Publishing House under the name of “Poetry Islands”, have met with the readers.

Arife Kalender had served between 1997 and 2001 as the Secretary General and the Board Member of the Turkish PEN Writers Association. Being one of the founding members of the BESAM (the Professional Association of Scientific and Literary Work Owners) and Nâzım Hikmet Foundation, Arife Kalender had been a board member and the vice-president of BESAM between 2002 and 2007. She attended the International Struga Arts Festival in 2000. Her 3rd poetry collection called “Suskun Resimler Durağı – The Station of the Silent Paintings” was rewarded with “Behçet Aysan Prize” organized by the Turkish Medical Association. Her 7th poetry book “Delibal – Mad Honey” brought to her 2005 Orhan Murat Arıburnu Prize. She writes about poetry and education. Arife Kalender translates literary works from German. Between 2007 and 2009 she had served as the Secretary General and the Board Member of the Turkish Writers Syndicate. She contributed to around twenty books and anthologies with her writings. In recent years she has been writing on the field of children literature. She continues to write poetry and to do translation.

PUBLISHED BOOKS OF ARİFE KALENDER:

1. “Maviler de Eskidi – The Blue Colored Ones Got Also Old”, Poetry, Cem Publishing House, 1992
2. “Göçebe Sevinçler – Nomadic Joy”, Poetry, Cem Publishing House, 1994
3. “Suskun Resimler Durağı – The Station of the Silent Paintings”, Poetry, Hera Poetry, 1995
4. “Gül Küstü – The Rose Was Offended”, Poetry, Hera Poetry, 1997
5. “Kırmızı Firari – The Red Fugitive”, Poetry, Cem Publishing House, 1999
6. “Kadın Burcu – Woman’s Horoscope”, Poetry, Hera Poetry, 2001
7. “Delibal – Mad Honey”, Poetry, Phoenix Publishing House, 2004
8. “Şiir Irmakları – The Poetry Rivers”, Review Essay, Phoenix Publishing House, 2005
9. “Yedi İklim Dört Mevsim – Seven Climates Four Seasons”, Turkish Epic, Phoenix Publishing House, 2006
10. “Dil Altı – Sub Lingual”, Poetry, Cem Publishing House, 2009
11. “Bendeki Malatya – Malatya in Me”, Authobigrophical City Book, Heyemola Publishing House, 2010
12. “Suçlu Fırtınalar – Guilty Storms”, Poetry, İlya Publishing House, 2011
13. “Toplu Şiirler I / Gül Küstü – the Collected Poems I / The Rose Was Offended”, İlya Publishing House, 2011
14. “Toplu Şiirler II / Suçlu Fırtınalar – the Collected Poems II / Guilty Storms”, İlya Publishing House, 2011
15. “Kuşlar Geçiyor – Birds Are Passing By”, Children Poetry, BenceKitap Publishing House, 2012
16. “Deren’in Şarkıları – Deren’s Songs”, Children Poetry, BenceKitap Publishing House, 2012
17. “Mehmethan’ın Rüyası – The Dream of Mehmethan”, Children Short Story, Nezih-Er Publishing House, 2014
18. “Gece Islıkları – Night Whistling”, Poetry, Tekin Publishing House, 2014
19. “Acı Yeşil – Hot Green”, Poetry, Tekin Publishing House, 2014
20. “Şiir Adaları – Poetry Islands”, Review Essay, Kaynak Publishing House, March 2015
21. “Günler Yazılar – Days and Writings”, Essay and Diary, Nezih-Er Publishing House, April 2015
22. “Dört İsmail Bir Leyla – Four İsmails and One Leyla”, Short Story, Tekin Publishin House, 2017 (ÇYD Türkan Saylan Prize)
23. “Mehmethan Pazarda – Mehmethan is in the Market”, Children Short Story, Nezih-Er Publishing House, 2017
24. “Sonra – Later on”, Short Story, Tekin Publishing House, 2017
25. “Yağmur Sandım Kendimi – I Thought I was a Rain”, Poetry, Tekin Publishing House, 2017