Talat S. Halman is professor and chairman of the Department of Turkish Literature at Bilkent University in Ankara. Formerly he was on the faculties of Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. Halman is the author and editor of more than eighty books, including Nightingales and Pleasure Gardens, The Turkish Muse, and A Brave New Quest. He is also the editor of the Journal of Turkish Literature.