After her PhD in philosophy at the University of Hacettepe, Füsun Akatli left teaching after the coup of September 1980, worked in advertising, then at the municipal theatres of Istanbul. She founded the Department of Theatre at Yeditepe University. Married from 1966 to 1979 to poet Metin Altiok, together, they took an active part in the socialist movement of the time. Akatli was an early contributor to numerous literary and intellectual magazines and was interested in cultural history as whole. In her essays, philosophy is at the service of literary analysis: “Bir Pencereden” ([From a Window], 1982), “Edebiyat Defteri” ([Literature Notebook], 1987) and “Zamansız yazılar” ([Untimely Writings], 1994). Her first book, “Niçin Dialektik?” ([Why Dialectics?], 1977), questions the issues of contemporary literature and examines a culture wherein philosophy exists but expresses itself very little. In 1998 and 1999, she gathered her numerous articles in three volumes, devoted to cultural essays, contemporary short stories, novels and poetry. She organised the posthumous publication of unpublished texts by one of the founders of Turkish modernism, Bilge Karasu. Together with Müge Gürsoy, she directed the collective “Bilge Karasu aramızda” ([Bilge Karasu is Among Us], 1997). In 2004, she was awarded the Memet-Fuat Essay Prize. Her latest book is “Rüzgara Karşı Felsefe” ([Philosophy Against the Wind], 2007).
