Yakup Almelek

Yakup Almelek is a businessman and writer who was born in Ankara's Samanpazarı District in 1936; Its origins are in the Jewish community. His father, Avram Almelek, worked in large bookstores in Ankara for 25 years and nurtured his son's interest in both Turkish and French literature. Almelek, who became interested in theater by watching the Ankara State Theater stages at a young age, completed his secondary and high school education at Ankara College, and then moved to Istanbul with his family in 1955. After graduating from Istanbul Higher Faculty of Commerce, he started his business life.

The publication of the text he sent to the Yunus Nadi Writing Competition in the Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1963 sparked his passion for writing; A total of seven more works met with readers in the same newspaper in the following years. Almelek, who founded the company called "Almelek Matbaa Mürekkepleri" in 1967, married Ester Benezra in 1970 and had two children.

Almelek settled in Vienna with his family in 1980 and turned to playwriting there. While his first work, "Businessman", is about the short life and radical changes of an ambitious businessman, "Awakening", which he wrote six months later, sheds light on women and family problems. Returning to Turkey in 1981, Almelek continued his literary career by writing weekly columns in Şalom newspaper for 14 years.

During the same period, he produced works in various genres such as stories, poems and plays, and his story "My Weekly Five Lira" was made into a short film by Ceyda Aslı Kılıçkıran under the name "Bir Nihavend Freedom" and was presented to the audience at the 42nd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

The play called “İş Manı” was staged by İzmir Karşıyaka Municipal Theater with an amateur cast in 2009; In the same year, it was translated into English and performed 11 times on New York's Off-Off-Broadway stage. “Awakening” was staged at the Mint Theater in 2010, and “Blood Feud” was staged at the Abingdon Theater in 2012; “Awakening” was shown in Istanbul by Oyun Bandı Theater in the 2014-2015 season and won the “İsmet Küntay Theater Special Award” at the 40th İsmet Küntay Theater Awards. Additionally, his work "My Room Neighbor Wagner" was translated into French and staged by the CRT Saint Blaise Ensemble in Paris.

K! was founded in 2017 with the idea of ​​transforming the old ink factory in 4. Levent into a theater space. He founded the stage called Cultural Performing Arts; With this initiative, he received the "Contribution to Theater" award at the Üstün Akmen Theater Awards in the 2018-2019 season. Continuing his writing direction, he published the books "And the Child Mad at God" in 2008 and "Don't Make Me Laugh" in 2017; Both works were translated into English and published in England in 2020. In 2019, he introduced his novel "Ömrüm, the Easel of My Memory" to the readers.