Cahit Külebi (1917-1997) was born in Çeltek village of Zile district of Tokat (December20, 1917). He completed his secondary education at Sivas High School in 1936 and hishigher education at the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at IstanbulHigher Teachers’ School in 1940. He was appointed as a cultural attaché and studentinspector to Switzerland. When he returned home, he served as the chief inspector andassistant undersecretary of culture at the Ministry of National Education. He assumedthe position of Secretary General of the Turkish Language Association (1978-1982). Hisfirst poem was published in “Gençlik” (Youth) magazine in 1938. He treated the life of theAnatolian people in his poems. He valued the national sources of Turkish culture ratherthan Western-based poetry movements and local reflections of the literature of his period.He wrote poems about Turkish revolutionary leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and theTurkish War of Independence. He pioneered the “New Folk Poetry” movement. His poemswere included in school textbooks. He won the Turkish Language Association LiteratureAward in 1955, the Yeditepe Poetry Award in 1981, and the Presidential Culture andArts Grand Award in 1996 with his works. He was a founder of SODEP and the SocialDemocratic Populist Party in 1983 and a member of the Central Executive Board. Themaster poet, who died in Ankara on June 20, 1997, was buried in Niksar.