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This week, Eleanor speaks with Turkish Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk. His new novel, A Strangeness in My Mind, covers forty years in the life of the city and an Istanbul street vendor.

From Istanbul, an exclusive interview with the Turkish political activist, journalist, writer, poet, and novelist, Ece Temelkuran. They discuss her poetry and her books, including Deep Mountain: Across the Turkish-Armenian Divide.

"Writing in the World of Islam," Pt. 4, with Orhan Pamuk. Orhan Pamuk (b. 1952 in Istanbul) is Turkey's bestselling novelist, with a dazzling reputation abroad. He deftly combines religious and historical themes with Western postmodernism. Pamuk has rejected the title of state artist in Turkey, where he is something of a publishing phenomenon. His latest book, My Name is Red, recently had a rave review in The New Yorker by John Updike.

Today, Writers and Company begins a special series called "View from the Bridge: Turkish Writing Today." It's where Asia and Europe meet, where cultural divisions are more complex than simply East and West. This week, Istanbul-born Perihan Mağden, the author of surprising and inventive novels such as The Messenger Boy Murders and Two Girls (which was made into a movie). Passionate and outspoken, she is also a widely read and often controversial columnist. Last year, she was tried and…

"View from the Bridge: Turkish Writing Today," part 2. Host Eleanor Wachtel talks with Refik Erduran and Buket Uzuner. Erduran, a playwright, journalist, novelist, publisher, television producer and more, is a well-known personality in Turkish culture. He shares vivid memories of the early days of Ataturk's republic and at the same time offers astute observations on contemporary life in Turkey. Uzuner is part of a younger generation of Turkish writers. She worked for many years as a…

The special series "View from the Bridge: Turkish Writing Today" continues this week on Writers & Company. Host Eleanor Wachtel talks with dynamic young novelist Elif Shafak. Her latest controversial hit, The Bastard of Istanbul, chronicles the intertwined lives of two families - one Turkish, the other Armenian.

The special series "The View from the Bridge: Turkish Writing Today" wraps up this week on Writers & Company, with Eleanor Wachtel's interviews with two writers. Talât Sait Halman is a translator, poet, literary historian and critic, editor and teacher. After many years in the United States, at Columbia, Princeton and NYU, he returned to Turkey in 1998 to found the Department of Turkish Literature at Bilkent University in Ankara. He's translated 5000 poems, including those of the Sufi…

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with a Nobel Prize-winning writer from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk. He's the author Istanbul and Snow, and also has a new book of essays entitled The Other Colors.