Sevgi Soysal was born in Istanbul in 1936. Her work is inspired by her childhood in Ankara, youth and student movements in Turkey, revolutionary dreams, and experiences of leftist intellectuals in prison and in exile. In 1974, Soysal won the prestigious Orhan Kemal Award for Best Novel for Noontime in Yenisehir, which she wrote while in prison. Dawn was published in 1975, a beautiful thematic companion to her memoirs of prison life. She wrote a brilliant set of endearing and illuminating story collections, novels, and memoirs before she died at the age of 40 of cancer in 1976. She left behind an incomplete novel, Welcome, Death!

Widely regarded as the foremost translator of Turkish literature, Maureen Freely was born in the US, raised in Turkey, and educated at Harvard. Her translated works include five works by the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. Sevgi Soysal was the first writer she ever translated.