Nazli Eray was born in Ankara, Turkey. After attending the English Girls Secondary School, İstanbul Arnavutköy American Girls College, and İstanbul University Faculty of Law, she worked as a translator in the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Promotion.
Her first story was entitled “Monsieur Hristo,” written when she was a secondary school student.
In 1986, an anthology of her stories was published in Germany. Her stories, plays and novels have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Czech, Urdu, Hindi, Swedish, and Arabic. Her novel Orpheus was published in the US in English in 2006. Her novels The Street of Different Dreams and Orpheus are being translated into Korean, and The Emperor Tea Garden is also currently being translated into English.
Nazlı Eray is the founder of the (Turkish) Literary Association, a member of the Turkish Writers’ Union, an honorary faculty member at Iowa University, and a member of PEN International. She has been a columnist in the newspapers Gunes, Cumhuriyet, Radikal, and Aksam.
The authors’ stories are included in the elementary school course books in Turkey.