Tiptoe through the Tulips: A Brief Excursion in the Turkish Novel

Ambassador Robert P. Finn will give a brief sketch of the development of the Turkish novel from its origins in the late nineteenthcentury to to the present, followed by discussion of a few of the major modern worksthat are available in English translation.

About the Speaker:
Ambassador Finn is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Liechtenstein Institute at the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs of Princeton University. He was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University from 2012-2014 and Principal Investigator of The Century Foundation’s Pakistan Project 2012-2015.From 2005-2012, he was a Senior Research Associate in the Liechtenstein Institute of the Woodrow Wilson School of international Affairs and Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School. From 2005-2008 he was also a lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Prior to this he was the Ertegün Visiting Professor of Turcology at Princeton University from 2003-2005. He served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in more than 20 years, from March 2002 until August 2003. Previously, he had also been the Ertegün Professor at Princeton, after serving as U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan, 1998-2001. His other diplomatic postings include Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, Turkey; Lahore, Pakistan; and Zagreb, Croatia. He opened the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 1992. He has received numerous awards from the USG, including two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards and one for heroism.

Ambassador Finn is the author of the book The Early Turkish Novel, which has been published both in English and Turkish. His poems and translations have appeared in the United States, Turkey, France and Pakistan. The University of Texas press published his translation of the Turkish author Nazli Eray’s novel, Orpheus in 2006 and will publish his translation of Eray’s The Black Rose of Halfeti in 2016. Syracuse University Press published his translation of Eray’s The Emperor Tea Garden in 2013. He co-edited Building State and Security in Afghanistan. (LISD-WWS-2007 and 2010). He translated Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk’s The Silent House , (Alfred Knopf, 2011) and Pamuk’s Cevdet Bey and Sons (Publication forthcoming).

Ambassador Finn holds a B.A. with honors in American Literature and European History from St. John’s University, an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and a Fulbright scholar at Istanbul University. He reads in more than ten languages.

Lunch will be served at this event. Please RSVP by contacting us at [email protected] or (215)-573-9748.