The eighth writer in the Living Writers series this fall, novelist Orhan Pamuk, was unable to visit campus on Thursday, Novemer 15 due to his daughter, R??ya, falling ill. Though the public Living Writers event was canceled, the Living Writers English class was pleased to invite George Andreou, Pamuk’s editor, to their class instead. The class also opened up to Colgate students wishing to participate in the discussion, so Andreou was met by a large group in Lawrence Hall.

Andreou, a senior editor and vice president at Knopf Publishers, has worked closely with Pamuk, editing five of his past publications. Andreou spoke highly of the 2006 Nobel Prize winner, describing his rapport with the author and his role as editor. In explaining the process of editing, Andreou stated that he regards it as the duty of any editor to be able to write well, as their job entails telling other writers how to better their own work. He also added insight into the editing process by sharing stories of the difficulty of dealing with Pamuk’s work, which must first be translated from his native Turkish.

The question-and-answer format that dictates each of the Living Writers’ classes created a lively discussion that eventually moved away from Andreou’s relationship to Pamuk to the author’s novels. Nobel Prize-winning “Snow,” a novel set in a small Turkish town, follows the life of Ka, a middle-aged poet who has endured political exile in Western Europe. Returning to his native country, Ka is swept up in the explosive politics of his country due to the advent of political Islam. As the narrator explores the way in which the country has become sealed off from the modern, westernized world, Pamuk leaves a lasting message about the effects of an unraveling secular order.

“Snow,” named one of the New York Times’s Ten Best Books of 2004, is only one of Pamuk’s highly acclaimed works. His novel “My Name is Red,” which focuses on the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III in 1591, has won numerous literary awards, including the International Dublin Literary Award, the Prix du Meilleur Livre ?etranger and the Premio Grinzane Cavour. The novel has also been translated into two-dozen languages.

Contact Leah Robinson at [email protected].