Turkish publisher Irfan Sanci is on trial for breaking an anti-obscenity law. The Sel publisher released a translation of Guillaume Apollinaire‘s erotic novel, The Exploits of a Young Don Juan (Les Exploits d’un Jeune Don Juan).
According to The Guardian, the Geneva-based International Publishers Association will honor his efforts. He will receive an award from the organization’s Freedom to Publish committee on November 2nd at the Istanbul TUYAP book fair. Sanci’s reaction? “I am being punished in my own country but am also getting an international award. This is tragic.”
Apollinaire wrote poetry, plays, articles, and prose throughout his writing career. He published one of his most famous erotic titles, The Eleven Thousand Rods (Les Onze Mille Verges) in 1907. It was banned in France until 1970.