Urkiye Mine Balman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Urkiye Mine Balman (January 29, 1927 - April 28, 2018) was a Turkish Cypriot author and poet who graduated from the Cyprus Turkish Teachers' Training College in 1946 and worked as a teacher in Cyprus. Balman wrote in a wide variety of genres. She is considered one of the pioneers of Cypriot women's poetry.
Balman was born in Lefke in 1927.[1] She wrote her first poems in 1940. She graduated from the Cyprus Turkish Teachers' Training College in 1946 and worked in Cyprus as a primary school teacher.[2]
Balman is considered one of the pioneers of Cypriot women's poetry.[2] She wrote on a wide variety of genres, but her works are mostly romantic poems describing sometimes a lonesome village girl or country life and long-distance romances. Balman wrote in both rhyming and free verse, and was a member of the “Syllabic-Romantic” contemporary movement.[2][3] Balman published her works in Yeşilada, Türk Dili, and Türk'e Doğru literary magazines in Turkey.[4] Some of her poems have also been set to music by Turkish Cypriot musicians.[1][5] Balman’s only published poetry collection, "Yurduma Giden Yollar" ["The Roads that Lead to My Home"], was published in 1952.[2] She won the Leading Poet Award at the Ali Nesim Literature Awards in 2017.[3]
Balman died on 28 April 2018 in Lefkosa, at the age of 91.[4][2] She was buried next to her husband, a school inspector, who had predeceased her.
