Turkish Writer Zülfü Livaneli on Poet Yaşar Kemal: "He Was My Best Friend for 44 Years."

Why It Matters

Kemal’s literary legacy defines modern Turkish storytelling and highlights the enduring risks writers face under political repression, influencing both domestic culture and global perception of Turkish literature.

Key Takeaways

• Livaneli describes Yaşar Kemal as his 44‑year friend.
• Kemal’s novels achieved bestseller status across Europe and the U.S.
• He was a perennial Nobel Literature candidate for three decades.
• Kemal blended Anatolian folklore with modern epic narrative style.
• His work highlighted social injustice while avoiding sentimental melodrama.

Summary

Turkish musician‑writer Zülfü Livaneli pays heartfelt tribute to his longtime friend, novelist Yaşar Kemal, recalling a 44‑year bond that spanned Istanbul, Paris, Stockholm and exile.

Livaneli notes Kemal’s universal reach—his novel “My Hawk” topped bestseller lists in Sweden, Britain and the United States, and he lingered on the Nobel Literature shortlist for thirty years. He emphasizes Kemal’s use of Anatolian dialects, folk lexicon, and an epic narrative structure that set him apart from conventional drama.

The interview is peppered with vivid anecdotes: Kemal’s generous tip to a drunken French clerk, crowds in Stockholm queuing for his autograph, and a New York writers’ conference where he warned that Turkish prisons serve as “schools of writers.” Livaneli also cites Kemal’s refusal to indulge in sentimental melodrama, preferring stark portrayals of injustice.

The reminiscence underscores Kemal’s role as the “father of Turkish literature,” whose blend of regional culture and modern form continues to shape emerging Turkish voices while reminding international audiences of the political pressures faced by writers in Turkey.

Original Description

Turkish writer and composer Zülfü Livaneli reflects on his decades-long friendship with the celebrated novelist Yaşar Kemal. Speaking about one of the towering figures of modern Turkish literature, Livaneli recalls the writer’s global reputation, his distinctive literary voice rooted in Anatolian storytelling, and the political pressures faced by writers in Turkey.

Livaneli describes Kemal as both a literary giant and a close personal companion. “He was my best friend for 44 years,” he says, recalling the years they spent together in Istanbul, Paris and Stockholm during periods of exile. For Livaneli, Kemal stands at the center of the Turkish literary canon: “He is the greatest figure in Turkish literature. He was like our Gogol, our Tolstoy.”

Kemal, who was of Kurdish origin, achieved international recognition with novels such as Memed, My Hawk, which became widely read across Europe and the United States. Livaneli notes that Kemal’s work drew deeply on the landscapes and oral traditions of southern Anatolia, particularly the region of Çukurova. “First of all, he has his climate, he has his own people,” Livaneli says, comparing the novelist’s fictional world to the imagined geography of William Faulkner.

The richness of Kemal’s language, Livaneli explains, came from his use of regional dialects and a vocabulary rooted in nature. “There is a dictionary of Yaşar Kemal — the names of flowers, the names of the nature, birds,” he says, describing the writer’s unusually vivid lexicon. Livaneli places Kemal’s storytelling within a broader epic tradition, tracing a line back to classical literature and oral epics such as the Iliad attributed to Homer.

Kemal’s work, Livaneli argues, rejected melodrama in favor of restraint — a quality he associates with the greatest literature. “Sentimentalism is not the way of the literary tradition,” he says, noting that tragedy can be conveyed more powerfully through understatement.

Despite Kemal’s international reputation and frequent consideration for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Livaneli believes that a writer’s deepest recognition ultimately lies at home. “Your real value can be understood in your own language for your own readers,” he says.

Livaneli also shares personal anecdotes that illustrate Kemal’s fame and character, including a chance encounter with a Parisian street wanderer who unexpectedly recognized one of Kemal’s fictional characters. The conversation also touches on the political risks historically faced by Turkish writers — a theme Kemal addressed publicly during a literary conference alongside the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

“Turkish prison is a school of Turkish writers,” Kemal once remarked in a speech, Livaneli recalls. Vonnegut responded with dark humor, congratulating his colleague for living in a country where writers were taken seriously enough to be imprisoned.

For Livaneli, the memories remain deeply personal. “Yaşar Kemal was my best friend,” he says — a final tribute to a writer whose influence continues to shape Turkish literature.

Christian Lund interviewed Zülfü Livaneli in his home in Bodrum, Turkey, in September 2024.

Cameras: Rasmus Quistgaard

Edit: Roxanne Bageshirin Lærkesen

Produced by Christian Lund

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026

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