Burhan Sönmez

Burhan Sönmez (born 1965) is a Kurdish novelist from Turkey. He is the President of PEN International, elected at the Centennial Congress in 2021. He is also Senior Member and a By-Fellow of Hughes Hall College, University of Cambridge.

Sönmez is the author of six novels. His first novel, ''North'' (Kuzey), was published in 2009 in Turkey. His second novel, ''Sins and Innocents'' (Masumlar), was published in 2011. His third novel, ''[https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/istanbul-istanbul-by-burhan-sonmez/ Istanbul Istanbul]'', was published in 2015. ''[https://otherpress.com/product/labyrinth-9781590510988/ Labyrinth]'', his fourth novel, got published in 2018. His fifth novel is ''[https://iletisim.com.tr/kitap/tas-ve-golge/9995 Stone and Shadow]'', published in 2021. In 2024, he published [https://www.lisyayinevi.com/evindaren-franz-k ''Lovers of Franz K.''], his first novel, which he wrote in his mother tongue Kurdish after writing five books in Turkish.

He received the "Disturbing the Peace" award given by [http://www.vhlf.org/events/disturbing-the-peace-2017/ Vaclav Havel Library Foundation] in New York (2017). He was awarded the [https://www.ebrd.com/ebrd-literature-prize.html#:~:text=Istanbul%2C%20Istanbul%2C%20a%20novel%20by,Lucy%20Hannah%2C%20and%20Gabriel%20Gbadamosi. EBRD Literature Prize] in London (2018) for his novel ''Istanbul Istanbul''. ''Sins and Innocents'' has received the Sedat Simavi Literature Prize, and ''Stone and Shadow'' received the Orhan Kemal Novel Award. ''Stone and Shadow'' was nominated for the Premio Strega Europeo (2023) and the Dublin Literary Award (2024). His novels have been published in more than forty countries.

Sönmez was the inaugural lecturer of the Trinity Global Humanities Lecture Series (2024) at the University of Cambridge, where he presented the idea of "Homo Artifex", focusing on the meaning of art and its place in the history of human civilisation. Provided by Wikipedia