Mustafa Balel

Mustafa Balel, Turkish short story writer and novelist (born 1 September in 1945, Sivas).

After he graduated from Ankara Gazi Institute of Education, Department of French philology (1968), he did his master's at the University of Poitiers in France (1971-1972). Returned to Turkey, he worked as a teacher at high schools in Ardahan (1968-1970), Sivas (1972-1975) and Istanbul, and at the Atatürk Education Institute (1978-1980). He was a member of publication committee of Larousse Encyclopedia (1986-1992); Axis Encyclopedia (1997-2001) and published a story journal Öykü (1975-1976, 8 issues).

He had his stories, articles and translations published in the journals and in publications published in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, France, Brazil, Iran and Romania. He translated several novels and short stories of the French language (Michel Tournier, Yann Queffélec, Pascal Bruckner, Jorge Semprún, Panait Istrati, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Dragan Babić, Marlène Amar etc.), as well as poetry of the Turkish to French, among other (Eyes of Istanbul, 2014, from Ayten Mutlu; The street seeking the sea, 2015; Hilal Karahan)

In his stories, he attracted attention with his ability to combine contemporary story technique with his mastery of traditional narration along with a successful psychological analysis. In his works, one notes that he indicates a structure conventionally matriarchal exist surreptitiously in a strictly patriarchal known society.

Mustafa Balel won the "Story Achievement Award" at the 12th Antalya Festival with his story Can Eriği (Plum, 1975) and the achievement award in the play competition held by the Turkish Opera and Ballet Foundation with his play Gün Vurgunu (The Day Hit, 1984).