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İskender Pala explains how Divan literature should be understood. Born in Uşak in 1958. Graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Letters (1979). He became a doctor (1983), associate professor (1993) and professor (1998) in Divan literature. He wrote articles, essays, stories and newspaper articles inspired by classical poetry so that Divan literature could be loved and understood by the masses again. The Divan Literature seminars and conferences he organized were followed by a wide audience and he was known as “The Man Who Made Divan Poetry Popular”. He received the Turkish Writers Union Language Award (1989), the AKDTYK Turkish Language Association Award (1990) and the Turkish Writers Union Review Award (1996) for some of his works. He was chosen as the “Uşak People’s Hero” by his fellow countrymen. His novels Death in Babylon, Love in Istanbul, Katre-i Matem, Shah&Sultan, OD, Efsane, Mihmandar, Karun and Anarchist have reached hundreds of thousands of copies, received many awards and were translated into foreign languages. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx