This weekend, the UW will host Seattle’s first-ever event exploring and celebrating Turkish literature.

“Turkish Literature in Seattle” will feature Walter G. Andrews and Selim S. Kuru, speakers from the UW Department of Near Eastern studies, and Orhan Pamuk, a 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient.

“Modern Turkish is a very young language in literature,” Kuru said. “Today, for example, if you’re looking for Turkish literature from the 19th century, you need to be educated to read it.”

Since Pamuk won the Nobel Prize, increasing attention has been given to Turkish literature, Andrews said. He is hoping the symposium will bring more awareness to Turkish literature in general.

“There is way … more to Turkish literature than Orhan Pamuk,” he said. “There are so many possibilities for Turkish literature.”

Pamuk’s works include the novels Snow, My Name is Red and Istanbul.

Andrews, who has known Pamuk since coaching him in basketball, will read the English translation of Pamuk’s work, and Pamuk will read the Turkish version in a joint reading.

“Pamuk’s work can be complicated,” Andrews said. “It’s not Under the Tuscan Sun.”

The event will be a public symposium that will discuss ideas of Turkish literature and show appreciation for the process of translating foreign literature into English, Kuru said.

There will be four translators at the event, including Maureen Freely, who was chosen by Pamuk to be a translator.

“It’s fun to see how the process [of translating literature] goes,” Andrews said. “People read Chinese literature and Japanese literature, but what they don’t realize is that what they are reading was not originally written in English.”

The Turkish language has undergone dramatic change only recently, since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey (the successor state of the Ottoman Empire) in 1924.

After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish language, which was previously based in Arabic and Persian, became more Latin-based, Kuru said. The reform was prompted by Turkish nationalists who wanted their language to reflect Turkey’s new identity as a post-Ottoman state.

“The language was totally altered,” Kuru said. “They ‘Turkified’ the language.”

The symposium will be conducted informally to encourage audience interaction. It will answer the what, why and how of Turkish literature and be informative for students, the community and people outside of the UW, Kuru said.

Saturday night, Münir Nurettin Beken, a renowned Turkish ud player, will give a concert. The European lute derived both its name and form from the Turkish ud.

“He’s so incredible,” Andrews said. “He even composes his own music.”

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has become eager to raise awareness of Turkish literature since Pamuk won the Nobel Prize.

“It’s been an adventure for us and the Ministry,” Andrews said. “Hopefully it’ll work out. I think it’ll be a fun conference.”

[Reach reporter Kim Lee at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]