Sait Faik Abasıyanık, a great proponent of the Turkish short story, was a writer identified with the name of Burgaz island (Burgaz Ada). The house where he once wrote and he and his family once resided on the island has been open to visitors since 1959.
Like many in Istanbul in those years Sait Faik, spent his winters in the city – in a house in Şişli – and spent his summers on the island. Owing to health problems, he spent the last ten years of his life continuously on the island. Remembered as the Turkish Chekhov by critics, his works have been translated in many languages.
The museum – exhibiting the writer’s personal works, old photographs, letters and postcards – was renovated and updated in 2013.
Sait Faik books in English:
A Dot on the Map: Selected Stories and Poems (Indiana University 1983)
Sleeping in the Forest: Stories and Poems edited by Talat S. Halman & Jayne L Warner (Syracuse University Press 2004)