Literature prize to Orhan Pamuk

ISTANBUL

Turkish Nobel laureate novelist Orhan Pamuk has been named the recipient of this year’s Erdal Öz Literary Prize. The prize is named after the late founder of the Can Publishing House and given to a writer who published a work in the last three years.

Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, was deemed worthy of the Erdal Öz Prize for “his efforts in the art of novel-writing and his contributions in helping Turkish literature gain worldwide recognition,” the committee said in a press release on Aug. 24.

The prize is judged by a seven-member committee, one member of which changes each year. 

Pamuk, the author of the bestselling novels “The Black Book,” “My Name Is Red,” “Snow” and “The Museum of Innocence,” will receive the prize, a statuette designed by sculptor Handan Börüteçene and a cash award of 15,000 Turkish Liras, in a ceremony to be held on Sept. 15 at the Pera Palace Hotel.

Öz, who died in 2006 at age 71, established the Can Publishing House in 1981. The Erdal Öz Literary Award was established in 2008 by Öz’s family.

Previous winners of the award include short-story writer Cemil Kavukçu, poet Küçük İskender, novelist İhsan Oktay Anar and poet and author Murathan Mungan.