New Europe College (NEC) is delighted to announce that on 13 October 2026 writer Yavuz Ekinci, currently a Fellow at NEC as part of the TANDEM, Author with Translator – Translator with Author Programme, was shortlisted for the Writing as Resistance Award/2026.

The Award is jointly presented by the prestigious PEN International and Fondazione Feltrinelli, and it supports writers who in their work demonstrate courage in championing civic engagement and solidarity in defending freedom and human rights against oppression.

Seven other international authors made it to the shortlist, which includes a group nomination too, and Mr Ekinci was particularly remarked for having “faced prosecution and censorship for writing about difficult and contested themes, including Kurdish identity, political persecution and displacement”.

The winner of the PEN–Inge Feltrinelli Writing as Resistance Award 2026 is to be announced at the BookCity Milan, next month.