The Behçet Necatigil Poetry Award 2014 Goes to Enver Ercan

The Behçet Necatigil Poetry Award was established in 1980 to commemorate one of the most important voices of contemporary Turkish poetry. The committee of this year included critic Doğan Hızlan, poets Refik Durbaş, Turgay Fişekçi, Cevat Çapan, and writer Eray Canberk. The poetry book that was awarded this year the Necatigil prize is Enver Ercan’s Türkçenin Dudaklarısın Sen (The Lips of Turkish Are You). Ercan has published Türkçenin Dudaklarısın Sen earlier this year, 17 years after his Geçtiği Her Şeyi Öpüyor Zaman (Time Kisses Everything It Passes Through). In his new poetry collection Ercan ideally dialogues with the biggest names of the 20th century Turkish poetry: Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Oktay Rifat, Attilâ İlhan, Cemal Süreya, Kemal Özer, Arif Damar, Ece Ayhan, and naturally Behçet Necatigil…