The 2025 Orhan Kemal Novel Award has been granted to one of the most prolific and beloved authors of Turkish literature, Ayşe Kulin. With a literary career spanning over four decades, Kulin was honored for her entire oeuvre, which has reached a wide readership through editions published by Everest Publishing.
This year, the competition received a total of 75 distinguished submissions. The jury, composed of A. Kemali Öğütçü, M. Nuri Gültekin, Çimen Günay Erkol, Tahir Şilkan, Mazlum Vesek, A. Turgay Fişekçi, and Kemal Varol, announced their decision with the following rationale:
“Ayşe Kulin, who embraces the ideals of enlightenment in her works, depicts the realities of war and migration experienced in Turkey and neighboring regions since the early 1900s, interweaving them with the theme of the family institution. With a realist narrative voice and a readership that has transcended borders for over 40 years, she has been awarded the 2025 Orhan Kemal Novel Award in recognition of her contribution to literature, taking into account both her latest novel and her entire literary output.”
The award ceremony will be held on May 30, 2025, at the Beyazıt Orhan Kemal Library Conference Hall in Istanbul.
First awarded in 1972 to Yılmaz Güney for his novel Boynu Bükük Öldüler (They Died with Heads Bowed), the Orhan Kemal Novel Award has become one of the most prestigious and enduring honors in Turkish literature. The award not only recognizes authors who contribute to the evolution of the novel form but also seeks to preserve and promote Orhan Kemal’s legacy of socially conscious realist literature.
The most recent recipients of the award were:
2024 – Ezgi Tanergeç: Devridaim
2023 – Kemal Varol: Babamın Bağlaması (My Father’s Saz)
2022 – Burhan Sönmez: Taş ve Gölge (Stone and Shadow)
2021 – Herkül Milas: Aile Mezarı (Family Grave)
2020 – Ayhan Geçgin: Bir Dava (A Cause)
Born in Istanbul in 1941, Ayşe Kulin graduated from the Literature Department of Arnavutköy American Girls’ College. She began her journalism career as a reporter for Cumhuriyet, Güneş, and Dünya newspapers and later worked as a writer and editor for various magazines. Her multifaceted career also includes work in public relations, film production, stage design, art direction, and screenwriting.
Her first short story collection, Güneşe Dön Yüzünü (Turn Your Face to the Sun), was published in 1984. One of the stories, “Gülizar,” was adapted into a screenplay and made into the film Kırık Bebek, which won an award from the Ministry of Culture.
In 1996, she won the Haldun Taner Short Story Award for her story Foto Sabah Resimleri, and in 1997, the collection bearing the same name was awarded the Sait Faik Short Story Prize. Her novels Adı Aylin and Sevdalinka have been translated into Greek and Serbian, respectively, receiving acclaim beyond Turkey.
Ayşe Kulin’s literary works go beyond personal narratives to encompass Turkey’s social, political, and historical transformations. With the institution of the family at the core, her stories portray migration, war, and womanhood with profound authenticity. The geographical and temporal scope of her narratives positions her not only as a novelist but also as a chronicler of collective memory through literature.
The decision to present the 54th Orhan Kemal Novel Award to Ayşe Kulin for her complete body of work reaffirms the importance of her contributions to literature and the unique role she plays in preserving cultural memory through storytelling.
