Wild Horse

Abbas Sayar [1923-1999] was born in Yozgat. After graduating fromhigh school, he was unable to attend university due to poverty.Following a brief period in civil service, he served as a reserveofficer. He later studied Turkology for four terms before beingforced to return to Yozgat in 1947. There, he established a printinghouse and continued publishing the biweekly newspaper Bozlak,which he had founded in Istanbul. Over the next forty-five years, hewrote thousands of editorials for the paper. Sayar also ventured intopolitics, though this proved short-lived, as he was unable toaccommodate the entrenched interests of the establishment. His firstnovel, Wild Horse, was published in 1970—fifteenyears after it was written—andwon the TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) Novel Award.Alongside his long career in journalism, he wrote eight novels andsix collections of poetry. He occupies a modest yet distinctive placein Turkish rural literature.Can Koçak is an Assistant Professor in Media and Cultural Studies atthe University of Sussex. Before finding his way into academia, heworked as a lawyer, copywriter, and copy editor. He is the Turkishtranslator of Mladen Dolar’s Rumors (Polity Press, 2025).Born in Ankara, Türkiye in 1990, he now lives in London.