SELÇUK ALTUN

Writer, publisher, bibliophile and former bank director. He started Yapı Kredi Publications in 1994, amassing a personal library of 9,000 volumes, publishing, amongst others, Louise Gluck and John Ashbery. Since 2004 Selçuk has been writing full-time: “My goal was to write a book by the age of 50…so I read some 4,000 books before I sat down to write. That, more than anything, gave me the confidence I needed.” His first novel Loneliness Comes from the Road You Go Down (Yalnızlık Gittiğin Yoldan Gelir) was published in 2001 and followed by 4 more novels (3 are in English), a book of essays and a monthly books column in the Cumhuriyet newspaper.

FEATURED BOOK: Farewell Fountain Street. Literary thriller set in Istanbul, tr. Nilgun Dungun and Mel Kenne, Telegram Books, 2022. Ziya Bey has 6 months left to live. From his mansion on Farewell Fountain Street, the Ottoman aristocrat plans to tie up some questionable business affairs and say goodbye to the people he loves.