Orhan Pamuk — an acknowledged talent from Istanbul

The land of Istanbul is rich not only in famous sights, but in talented people also, who have merited world recognition. One of such people is the writer Orhan Pamuk.

Creative development

Orhan Pamuk was born on June, 7, 1952 in a wealthy family in Istanbul. His father was the first chief executive of Turkish IBM department. The future writer studied at a prestigious American school, then – at Technical university, but he left it, being enthusiastic about journalism. In 1977 Pamuk graduated from Istanbul university, having the specialty of journalist. For several years he has been teaching in the USA. And starting from the middle of 1980s Pamuk was engaged only in literature.

His first literary works were published in 1974. In 1979 Orhan Pamuk was awarded to the prize of the leading Turkish newspaper “Milliyet” for his tale "Karanlik ve isik" (“the light and the dark”). Within the next ten years he became the most popular writer at his motherland and was awarded to numerous national prizes.

His first novel, successful beyond the bounds of Turkey - was “White fortress”. In 1990 Pamuk received the prize of British newspaper “The Independent” for this work. In the same year in Turkey there was published one of the writer’s most famous novels - “ The Black book” which became a bestseller in a moment, and in the course of a year it was translated into 10 languages. The work “My name is Red” secured his success. For this work the writer was awarded to the greatest literary prize IMPAC – 100 000 Euro in 2003.

His last novel “The Snow” deserved even better references, and became one of the most famous works of the writer beyond Turkey. In 2005 Orhan Pamuk was awarded to the World Prize and became the main rival of Harold Pinter to receive the Nobel Prize. Today the novels of Orhan Pamuk are translated into 40 languages.
In November 2006 in was known that Orhan Pamuk became the first Turkish laureate of the Nobel Prize in literature. In press-release of Swedish Royal academy it was said that the award was given to him as to the author, who “found new signs of naming the collisions and interlacement of cultures, searching for the melancholic soul of his native city”.