[1] He started writing poetry while he was still a student and his poems were published as of early 1940s in such prominent Turkish literary periodicals as Varlık and Servet-i Fünun.

Toward the end of that decade, while he was doing his military service, he also started writing short stories in which the profound influence of another important Turkish writer, Sabahattin Ali, could be felt.

[citation needed] This, and the themes of social consciousness obvious in his works could be the reason for which he was sometimes cited in the same title as other "writers of the left", although he never actively engaged in political issues.

Another famous novel by Necati Cumalı is "Devastated Hills: Macedonia 1900" (Viran Dağlar: Makedonya 1900), where he relates the history of his own family which descended from a long line of Turkish Beys (Cuma Beyleri, "the Beys of Djuma"), with the turmoil in the Balkans providing the background.

This novel has been adapted (not very faithfully) for the television by Michel Favart in 2001 as a multinational ARTE production under the title "Le dernier Seigneur des Balkans".