Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk — Biography

Orhan Pamuk, born 7 June 1952 in Istanbul, is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter and academic of international renown. Educated at Robert College and Istanbul University's Faculty of Communications, he abandoned his architectural studies to devote himself entirely to writing. In 2006 he became the first Turkish author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, claiming the honor at 54, one of the youngest laureates in the prize's history.

Known for novels such as Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, My Name Is Red, Snow and The Museum of Innocence, Pamuk has seen his work translated into more than sixty languages, published in over a hundred countries and sold in excess of thirteen million copies. Of Circassian descent on his father's side, he teaches literary writing and comparative literature at Columbia University and has been a member of the American Philosophical Society since 2018.

Pamuk's outspokenness on contested historical and political matters, particularly remarks on the Armenian and Kurdish issues, drew legal action against him in Turkey and led to a 2011 court order to pay compensation. Together with José Saramago, he helped launch the European Writers' Parliament in Istanbul in 2010, and in the summer of 2026 he returned to readers with a new book, "Kelimeler ve Resimler" (Words and Pictures).