The TIME 100 — Are They Worthy?

AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: Turkish novelist
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 1

PRO: Writer whose open criticism of Turkey's 1915 genocide of Armenians caused him to flee his home country. He returned after nine months, only to go on trial for insulting Turkey and Turkishness. The charges were later dropped, but Pamuk had already become a global cause célèbre. He won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Turk to do so.

CON: Some say Pamuk's cause created bias among the Nobel judges, who have a history of picking writers in conflict with their own governments. Pamuk himself called the prize "nonsense" before receiving it.