Madam Atatürk - Translation Feyza Howell

FEYZA HOWELL
Talking specially to our Club about the book she translated
on this remarkable woman who helped to change the history of Turkey and influence emancipation of women.


Latife Uşşakizâde (1898-1975), was the wife of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1923 -1925). She was born in Izmir into an intellectual family, went to school in England, studied Law at the Sorbonne and played an important part in the transformation of Turkey, the emancipation of women and promotion of secularism. After their divorce in 1925, she removed herself from public life entirely for the rest of her days. İpek Çalışlarʼs biography, a work of solid research, revealed Latife Hanım as a resolute intellectual who stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband in the early days of the emerging Republic of Turkey. The book originally created a massive controversy as it challenged the vilification of Latife Hanım. Her own diaries have yet to be published.

Feyza Howell is a literary translator, interpreter and a member of English PEN who has worked in TV, radio and press advertising, marketing and management. Her backlist includes Fiasco by Coşkun Büktel, The Book of Madness by Levent Şenyürek and The Concubine by Gül İrepoğlu. Amongst the works she has translated are Waste by Hakan Günday and Fog and The Night and A Memento for Istanbul by Ahmet Ümit. Her translation of Unto the Tulip Gardens: My Shadow by Gül İrepoğlu is due for publication in 2014, and Madam Atatürk by İpek Çalışlar was published last Autumn by Saqi.