Turkey

Kurdishness: A Matter of Existence and Non-Existence

Nurcan Baysal on Kurdish language, culture and identity. Translated by Nazım Dikbas.

Shouldering the Boat

Sema Kaygusuz on language, water and renewal. Translated by Nicholas Glastonbury.

Lubunca Is the Language of Activism: A Conversation with Lilith Bardakçı

Lilith Bardakçı on the history and evolution of Lubunca, the language spoken by the LGBTQ+ community in Turkey.

Osman Kavala and the Life of the Mind

Thomas de Waal on sending Osman Kavala books to read in Silivri Prison.

Something Shadowless, Like You: Nedim Türfent Writes Back to Ai Weiwei from Prison

Kurdish poet and journalist Nedim Türfent writes to Ai Weiwei, who has sent a postcard to Türfent as part of the PENWrites campaign.

The Great Homeless of Literature

Selahattin Demirtaş on 'home', state-sanctioned writing, and what makes literature literature. Translated by Kate Ferguson.

Hope in a Bottle of Honey

Kurdish writer Nurcan Baysal responds to a letter from Nedim Türfent.

This Is Not an Arthur Koestler Novel – This Is Turkey

Can Bahadır Yüce writes on Turkey's response to coronavirus, and calls for the release of at-risk political prisoners

Silence, Our Noisy Silence: A Conversation with Sema Kaygusuz and Nicholas Glastonbury

Sema Kaygusuz and Nicholas Glastonbury discuss shame, representation and the Turkish language.

No time for arrogance: a conversation with Ece Temelkuran

Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning Turkish writer now based in Zagreb. We caught up with her during her book tour to talk about politics, the marketplace of ideas, and how writers in exile are victimised.

Home, Tarçın and my mother

"I try to hold on to what I remember, wondering where and what home is for me." Ege Dündar hasn't seen his home, his mother, and his beloved dog in three years. He is building a life guided by memories.

Darker, longer, tougher, stronger

‘Not everyone should have one, but 2017 was my annus horribilis.’ Pınar Öğünç reflects on Turkey, political change, and Sansevierias.

The Writer’s Paradox

I am writing this in a prison cell. But I am not in prison. I am a writer.

Yazarın paradoksu

Editing a book review: a dangerous act in Turkey

As Cumhuriyet journalists await their verdict in Turkey, Can Bahadır Yüce pays tribute to his imprisoned colleagues and reflects on the link between populism and anti-intellectualism.

If This is a Lament

Exclusive preview of the title poem, 'If this is a lament', from a new chapbook of work by Turkish poet Bejan Matur, translated by Jen Hadfield and Canan Marasligil.

Write, write, otherwise we are lost

The translator and activist reflects on the role of literature in a country in crisis, ahead of English PEN’s event ‘PEN Atlas presents: the View from Turkey’ on 19 September.

The seizure of a book review

On 4 March 2016, Kitap Zamanı, the literary supplement of Turkey’s largest newspaper Zaman, was shut down by the government. Poet Can Bahadır Yüce reflects on the future of press freedom in Turkey.

But why do you write your books in English and Turkish?

Elif Shafak investigates what makes the bilingual author choose to write in one language and not another

The Greatest Turkish Novel?

Kaya Genç discusses the cultural and literary legacy of Hamdi Tanpınar whose 1961 novel 'The Time Regulation Institute' was published this year as a Penguin Classic.

PEN Atlas: literary dispatches from Turkey

Maureen Freely introduces an exclusive new e-book from PEN Atlas, collecting some of the best journalism, memoir, essays and dispatches from Turkey, at a moment when the country is poised in the middle of great changes, both political and literary

Living by the pen

What is the cost of going on the payroll for a writer in Turkey?

A literature in search of its language

Ciwanmerd Kulek charts the ongoing struggle for the Kurdish language, and whether being a language that is now more written than spoken threatens it in new and troubling ways

On #OccupyGezi, the Turkish Government prefers conspiracy theories to engagement

Our man in Berkhamsted

Kaya Genç introduces PEN Atlas readers to Şavkar Altınel: travel writer, inspiration for a famous literary character, translator of famous British poets and resident of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. But above all Altınel is a poet in his own right, comparable with Larkin for his 'dry lyricism' and nostalgia.

A wind blows from Gezi Park

This week PEN Atlas returns to Turkey for an update on Gezi Park. Müge İplikçi reflects on recent events and draws parallels between the treatment of protestors and the ongoing stifling of Turkish writers, who work in a system in which profit is the only validation.

On the sublimation of authority

Hakan Günday unpacks the notion of authority and censorship, and considers its effects on civilians

The Walnut Tree of Gezi Park

Following recent events, PEN Atlas is running an additional dispatch this week from Turkey. Kaya Genç writes for us about Nâzım Hikmet Ran, whose poem 'The Walnut Tree' has taken on a prophetic turn and an inspirational one in light of Gezi Park

The Sounds of Istanbul

In the latest of our literary dispatches from Turkey, Mario Levi contemplates the sounds of the city he grew up in, and the stories that lie behind them for those willing to listen

Taking a stand

Oray Egin reports on the continuing protests in Turkey, why they began in Gezi Park and what the writers of the country owe to those marching on the streets

What is a country?

Following her visit to the UK last week for the London Book Fair Turkey Market Focus, Ece Temelkuran reflects on 'Writing Turkey' and what the term 'country' has come to represent for her.

The Silk Road

In the run-up to London Book Fair 2013, for which Turkey is the market focus, Murathan Mungan writes for PEN Atlas about how East and West view each other, what Henry James could have learnt from Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil and the building of a new Tower of Babel

What is Official? Turkish writing, from state discourse to civil literature

As part of our ongoing series of PEN Atlas dispatches from Turkey, Kaya Genç describes the struggle for the soul of his country's literature between state officials and independent creative writers

Literature rises in the East

Ayfer Tunç writes for PEN Atlas about the importance of looking beyond the clichés so that Turkish literature is seen in the context of World Literature.

Literary festivals: playground or construction site?

This week's PEN Atlas piece reports from the Tanpınar literary festival in Turkey. Journalist Ece Temelkuran gives her personal response to this year's festival