Pınar Selek awarded the 2026 Tucholsky Prize

The board of PEN Swe­den has deci­ded to award the 2026 Tuchols­ky Prize to the French‑Turkish wri­ter, socio­lo­gist and PEN mem­ber Pınar Selek for “her pro­found com­mit­ment to the rights of women and mino­ri­ties in Tur­key, and for her consistent defence of aca­de­mic prin­ciples.”

On 15 Novem­ber, the Day of the Impri­so­ned Wri­ter, she will come to Stock­holm to receive the prize.

Pınar Selek is a wri­ter, socio­lo­gist and femi­nist who has writ­ten exten­si­ve­ly on women’s rights and the situa­tion of mino­ri­ties in Tur­key. She is one of many wri­ters per­se­cu­ted by the autho­ri­ties of Tur­key through pro­lon­ged judi­cial harass­ment. She has lived in France since 2011. On Fri­day, 18 Sep­tem­ber, Selek will once again stand trial in Istan­bul.

— Thank you for enfol­ding me in the light of the Tuchols­ky Prize. Born of the expe­rience of fas­cism, of uncom­pro­mi­sing resis­tance to war, and of the auto­no­my of thought, this light shines on me today, at a time when arro­gant power tramples on cri­ti­cal thin­king to the point of nor­ma­li­zing the unbea­rable, says Pınar Selek.

Per­se­cu­ted for decades

Pınar Selek was arres­ted in Istan­bul in July 1998 in connec­tion with her socio­lo­gi­cal research. At the time of her arrest, she had been wor­king on an oral his­to­ry of the Kurdistan’s Wor­kers Par­ty (PKK) and tal­king to some PKK mem­bers to find out why they had cho­sen armed vio­lence. Selek repor­ted being tor­tu­red in an attempt to coerce her into divul­ging the names of indi­vi­duals she had inter­vie­wed as part of her research. Sub­se­quent­ly char­ged on trum­ped-up ter­ror-rela­ted grounds, she spent over two years in pri­son. Selek was acquit­ted of all charges four times – in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014 – never­the­less, courts orde­red new trials after each acquit­tal. In June 2022, Türkiye’s Supreme Court over­tur­ned the fourth acquit­tal, and the trial is still ongoing. The courts’ per­se­cu­tion is a way of puni­shing her for her legi­ti­mate wri­ting and research.

The latest trial offi­cial­ly began on 31 March 2023 and has alrea­dy been post­po­ned seven times. At her most recent hea­ring on 2 April 2026 – which las­ted only seven minutes – the pro­se­cu­tion deman­ded that Pınar appear in per­son and cal­led for her imme­diate arrest. PEN Inter­na­tio­nal, PEN Swe­den, PEN Tür­kiye and PEN centres around the world have repea­ted­ly deman­ded an end to her decades-long judi­cial harass­ment.

Pınar Selek is a mem­ber of PEN Tür­kiye and one of the foun­ders of Amar­gi, a Tur­kish femi­nist jour­nal. Her latest book, Rai­sing Your Head. For­bid­den Research on Kur­dish Resis­tance (Lever la tête. La recherche inter­dite sur la résis­tance kurde), was publi­shed in Februa­ry 2026.

About the Tuchols­ky Prize

The Tuchols­ky Prize has been awar­ded by PEN Swe­den since 1985 and given to a per­se­cu­ted, threa­te­ned, or exi­led wri­ter or jour­na­list who has made signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tions to free­dom of expres­sion. The prize com­me­mo­rates the Ger­man jour­na­list and wri­ter Kurt Tuchols­ky, one of the intel­lec­tuals who most shar­ply cri­ti­ci­sed Nazism, which for­ced him to flee Ger­ma­ny. He lived in Swe­den from 1929, and it was there he recei­ved the news that he had been strip­ped of his Ger­man citi­zen­ship and that his books had been bur­ned.

Pre­vious reci­pients of the Tuchols­ky Prize include Sal­man Rush­die, Bei Dao, Nurud­din Far­rah and Samar Yaz­bek. Se pre­vious reci­pients here.

https://www.svenskapen.se/senaste-nytt/2026/9/15/pnar-selek-tilldelas-tucholskypriset-2026