Şeref Taşlıova

{ Şerafettin Taşliova (10 April 1938 – 20 September 2014) was a Turkish storyteller in the asik bardic tradition. Taşliova won many prizes at bardic contests for improvised poetry and storytelling; many at international level. He had also been awarded by UNESCO. He started writing poetry around the age of ten and was widely recognised for his ability to tell epic tales, being one of the most prominent figures in the northeastern Anatolian tradition of minstrelsy, He was a prolific published author of poetry, and has also recorded many albums of his poetry and bardic stories. Taşliova also had a long career in broadcasting. He made appearances on a number of Turkish television stations, and had been making a regular radio broadcast since 1966. He also appeared in the Michael Wood BBC documentaries In Search of the Trojan War (1985) and In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1997), in which he demonstrates the oral traditions of the storyteller. {