Author • Turkish literature

Mine Soysal

Author and publisher Mine Soysal was born in 1959 in İstanbul. Soysal graduated from İstanbul University, Department of Ancient Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures in 1981. Until 1994 she worked as an archaeologist and researcher in İstanbul Archaeology Museums, carrying out exhibition projects and participating in many excavations and surveys. She founded Günışığı Kitaplığı in 1996, a publishing house specialised in Turkish and world literature for children and young adults. She prepared the story book Ala, the Child on the Road (Ala Çocuk Yollarda, 2005) for children, as well as science-based books for children and young people. Inspired by thousands of conversations she has had with students, she wrote her groundbreaking book Oh No, Books! (Eyvah Kitap!, 2006) on children’s and young people’s reading habits. She addressed the important problems of youth in her short story book Alone in the Room (Odada Yalnız, 2009). Her first young adult novel, The Loves Of Eylül (Eylül’de Aşklar, 2001) tells the story of a wounded first love, while Far Away (Uzakta, 2014), published by ON8, narrates the efforts of two young people to find themselves. Her narrative The Story of İstanbul (İstanbul Masalı, 2003), written for readers of all ages, was adapted into the TV documentary “A Tale of İstanbul by Mine Soysal” in 2015. In In a Tight Spot (Daralan, 2017), she gives voice to the inner worlds of young people. Her latest work, Hooray for Books! (Yaşasın Kitap!, 2025), continues the legacy of her popular Oh No, Books! with new stories that reflect the realities shaping young people’s reading culture today. She served two terms on the Turkish Publishers Association’s board of directors between 2020 and 2023, among other contributions. She was deemed worthy of the 2025 Oğuz Tansel Children’s Literature Award, given within the framework of the Troy Culture and Arts Awards. Soysal, who continues to give nationwide seminars on literature and reading culture, lives in İstanbul and serves as the general manager of Günışığı Kitaplığı.