Ahmet Altan

Ahmet Altan is a Turkish novelist and journalist imprisoned for allegedly sending "subliminal messages" while on a television talk show, an action the state describes as "knowingly and willingly assisting a terrorist organization." His first novel Dört Mevsim Sonbahar (Four Seasons of Autumn), published in 1982, brought him the Akademi Bookstore Novel Prize. His second, Sudaki İz (Trace on the Water) was condemned as obscene by an Istanbul court, which ordered the burning of extant copies. His seventh (of eight), Kılıç Yarası Gibi (Like a Sword Wound), was a best seller, and won the prestigious Yunus Nadi Novel Prize in Turkey in 1998. Altan’s novels have been translated into over a dozen languages. I Will Never See the World Again, his eighth collection of essays, is available in an English translation by Yasemin Çongar from Other Press.

13 min Read Now

Polity of Literature (22/51)

Wood Sprites

Written by Ahmet Altan, Illustrated by Ken Krimstein

When unlawfully incarcerated for almost five years, Ahmet Altan daydreamed his way out of prison by recalling the books he’d read and the “Wood Sprites” they contained.

11 min Read Now

Polity of Literature (2/51)

The Writer’s Paradox

By Ahmet Altan

While writing and reading, even an imprisoned man can be free. Turkish novelist Ahmet Altan wrote this text during the first of almost five years he spent unlawfully detained in a Turkish prison.