Burhan Sönmez

Burhan Sönmez is the author of six novels and the president of the international organization PEN International. He is a senior member of Hughes Hall College and Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. His novels have been translated into more than 40 languages and have received international awards, including the EBRD Literature Prize and the Václav Havel Library Award. He was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before leaving for the United Kingdom for political reasons, where he lived in exile for several years. He has served as a jury member at numerous events, including the Inge Feltrinelli Prize and the International Film Festival in Geneva, and has written for La Repubblica, Der Spiegel, and The Guardian. He translated William Blake’s poetry collection The Marriage of Heaven and Hell into Turkish. He lives between Istanbul and Cambridge.