Ilhan Sami Çomak

For twenty-nine years, a poet has his birthday in prison. Ilhan Sami Çomak, who was incarcerated in 1994, had an open visitation on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. His attorney brought messages from people around the world to the…

Ilhan Sami Çomak, the Kurdish poet who has been in a Turkish prison for the last 28 years, was awarded the Metin Altıok Poetry Prize and the Norwegian Freedom of Expression Award (shared with Ahmet Altan, writer/journalist from Turkey). The…

I learned to read by reading the Bible. For me, the Bible was a giant black book with the engraved image of the Sacred Family on the cover. I used to love the words printed there with straight letters. Gold…

This is the second part of our conversation with Ilhan Sami Çomak, who has been in prison for the last 27 years. Ilhan has written eight books of poetry. In part I of the interview, describing his situation, Ilhan writes:…

LITERARY EVENT Last March 8th, Pen Norway celebrated Ilhan Sami Çomak’s birthday. His lawyer, Ipek Özel, said that when Ilham was told about his birthday celebration, he said, “Tell them that after 27 years in prison, I’m still 22.” Ilhan…