Cihan AKTAŞ Science Committee Member

Cihan Aktas was born in 1960 in Refahiye-Erzincan. She graduated from Besikduzu Teacher’s High School (1978) and Istanbul DGSA School of Architecture (1982). She has worked as an architect, journalist and lecturer. In addition to novels and short stories, she has published research books and essays on women, publicity, art and politics. In 2002, her book Bacidan Bayan’a (From Sister to Miss) was confiscated for violating Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code, but the decision was later overturned. She was awarded the “Storyteller of the Year” by the Writers’ Union of Turkiye in 1995, the “Youth Magazine” in 1997 and the “Novelist of the Year” by the TYB in 2002. In 2009, her storybook “Flawless Picnic” won the ESKADER Storybook of the Year Award. In 2015, she received the Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar Award of the 15th Bursa Literature Days; in 2016, she received the Omer Seyfettin Story Award for her book “If You Were My Daughter, You Would Know”; and in the same year, she received the Necip Fazil Novel – Story Award.

She wrote for www.dunyabulteni.net between 2008 and 2016, and currently writes for Gercek Hayat and Itibar magazines and www.sonpeygamber.info. She teaches film culture at Eyup Film Academy.

In 2013-2014, together with Suat Kocer, she presented the program “Irfan Cinema” at Eyup Cafer Pasa Cultural Center. The following year, she organized the program “The Other Side of the Moon” at the same place, where she discussed the important issues of the month. Since 2015, she has been giving lectures on cinema culture at the Eyup Cinema Academy.