Inside stories: Turkey’s grim tradition of publishing behind bars
Former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş has published a short story collection, written while in jail awaiting trial – just the latest example of a writer clashing with Turkey’s government
At the Istanbul book fair last November, there was a signing for the politician Selahattin Demirtaş’s short story collection Seher (Dawn). Demirtaş, former leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has been in pre-trial detention since November 2016, and 20 authors stepped in for him as an act of solidarity. It lasted more than six hours as hundreds queued to get their copies signed.
Demirtaş wrote the stories in prison and the book is his first work of fiction, selling more than 200,000 copies. It is being published in 11 territories, including the UK next spring. Some of the stories are political satire – one is addressed to the prison letter-reading committee that vets what he writes – but most are portraits of working-class life on the margins. There is also a chilling story about an “honour killing”, the title story of the collection.
There’s a saying here: if you want to be a writer, you need to go to prison. It’s a joke, but still a fact for our generation
My cellmates usually watch TV. Of course every writer wants to write in a quiet place but this is not a luxury I have
