© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

Once Resented, Pamuk Takes Solace in Nobel

For Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, winning the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature completes a turnaround from his being tried on charges of "insulting Turkishness." The charges against Pamuk, Turkey's most internationally renowned novelist, were eventually dropped.

That episode was far from his mind Thursday, when the author said he felt his culture, his hometown of Istanbul, and his art had been recognized. "This is not a day for politics for me," Pamuk said.

But some of the reaction among Turks today has mixed pride in the recognition of a Turkish writer with some lingering resentment of Pamuk's remarks about Turkey's Armenian genocide.

Robert Siegel talks to Pamuk.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.