Ruth Christie UK

Ruth Christie was born and educated in Scotland, and after graduating from from the University of St Andrews, taught English for two years in Turkey, later studying Turkish language and literature at London University. For several years she taught English literature to American undergraduates resident in London. With Saliha Paker she translated a Turkish novel by Latife Tekin (Marion Boyars, 1993) and in collaboration with Richard McKane a selection of the poems of Oktay Rifat (Rockingham Press 1993). A major collection of Nâzim Hikmet’s poetry, again with Richard McKane, was published by Anvil Press in 2002. In 2004 In the Temple of a Patient God, her translations from the Turkish of Bejan Matur, was published by Arc Publications in its ‘Visible Poets’ translation series.

Recent translations include a major collection, Poems of Oktay Rifat, co-translated with Richard McKane (Anvil,2007), which was runner-up in the Popescu Poetry Prize; a translation (in collaboration with Selçuk Berilgen) of Selçuk Altun’s novel Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, (Telegram, 2008); and a translation (with Selçuk Berilgen) of Bejan Matur’s How Abraham Abandoned Me (Arc, 2012) which was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

(2017)