PEN America has awarded Ayşe Berktay its most prestigious award this year, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Ayşe Berktay

The award, which “honors international writers who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression” yet again calls attention the number of intellectuals and writers who are imprisoned or on trial in Turkey.  Berktay, according to PEN, is “[one] One of at least 130 writers currently in prison or on trial in Turkey, many on false terrorism-related charges, she could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.”  She has accepted the award from detention.