Demirtaş’s Book ‘Seher’ Candidate for Médicis Award

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Having been kept in custody for 22 months, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s book titled “Seher” he wrote in prison has been nominated to Médicis Award, which is one of the most prestigious literary awards in France.

Published by Dipnot publications, Seher was published in France by one of France’s prominent publishing houses Emmanuelle Collas and translated by Julien Lapeyre de Cabanes.

Founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux, it is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his or her talent”.

Demirtaş is among 10 authors who are nominees in the category of foreign authors.

Médicis Award was granted to Orhan Pamuk in 2006 with his novel Kar (Snow).

The 10 foreign nominees are as follows:

* Selahattin Demirtaş, Seher
* Zadie Smith Swing, Time
* Javier Cercas, King of the Shadows
* Rachel Kushner, The Mars Club
* Jon Kalman Stefansson, Asta
* Horacio Castellanos Moya, Moronga
* Peter Stamm, Sweet Dreams
* Zoe Valdes, Désirée Fe
* Brad Watson, Miss Jane
* Yiyun Li, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

(EKN/TK)