One of the foremost authorities on Turkish Cypriot philosopher and poet Osman Türkay is publishing two new books about his life and work.

Author, broadcaster and sociologist Semra Eren-Nijhar has penned ‘Millennium Poet Osman Türkay’, a 272-page book in English, and another, ‘Uzay’ın şairi Osman Türkay’, in Turkish, both published by Ozan Publications.

The books follow an earlier one by Eren-Nijhar, who has researched extensively the life of Girne-born Osman Türkay, as well as meeting and interviewing the influential writer several times prior to his death in 2001.

Eren-Nijhar’s first book on the poetry and thoughts of Türkay, ‘Evrenin Şairi Osman Türkay’, published in 2011, helped to bring this important personality and his work back into vogue. Such was the book’s popularity, it has been reprinted twice since, the last in 2015.

In her latest book on Türkay, who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Eren-Nijhar reviews the life of the poet, writer and researcher through the eyes of his family, friends and colleagues. Alongside these, Eren-Nijhar includes a selection of Türkay’s poems as well as extracts from his literary works.

Both books will be launched later this year with at a book signing event in Lefkoşa, in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, where Türkay was from. The Turkish Cypriot visionary was born in the Girne village of Gazafana in 1927, which has since been renamed ‘Ozanköy’ – Turkish for Poet’s Village’.

The books will be available to buy at the book launch, as well as online, and from select number of local bookstores in the UK and TRNC. For more information, visit the author’s website: erennijhar.com