PEN Turkey announces winners of 2023 Duygu Asena Award

PEN Turkey Writers’ Association has announced the winners of the 2023 Duygu Asena Award.

News Center- PEN Turkey Writers’ Association has announced that it has granted the 2023 Duygu Asena Award to Pınar Selek, Gülseren Onanç and Haluk Levent.

The statement released by PEN Turkey said, “We have been going through an extraordinary process due to the earthquake. Although the authoritarian one-person regime that replaced the parliamentary regime calls this extraordinary and painful process a “plan of destiny”, we believe that if dear Duygu Asena were alive today, she would definitely oppose it (one-person regime), rush to help like any human being having a conscience with her pen, love of humanity and social justice in his heart. In today's conditions, we decided to give the 2023 Duygu Asena Award, given in memory of Duygu Asena, to three people representing three organizations.”

One of the winners of the 2023 Duygu Asena Award is Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association. Pınar Selek is a sociologist, feminist, and author. She is also a professor and researcher at the Côte d'Azur University in Nice since 2017. Singer Haluk Levent is the founder of the NGO Ahbap.