Perhat Tursun

Perhat Tursun (; ; born January 1969) is a Uyghur writer and poet. He is considered to be one of the most notable modern Uyghur writers. In January 2018, he was seized by Chinese authorities from Urumqi and was later reported to have been sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment.

Biography Perhat was born in 1969 in Artush, Xinjiang. Uyghur conservatives in Xinjiang denounced the book as heretical, leading to book burnings and death threats against Perhat. Publishers in Xinjiang region, which are largely state-run, responded to the controversy by refusing to publish any works by Perhat for the next 16 years. The specific reasons for his arrest are unknown, but it has been suggested this might be due to him signing a petition asking the Chinese government to respect the Uighur language. Perhat was working on five uncompleted novels at the time of his disappearance.

Recognition Writing for Foreign Policy, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian described him as China's Salman Rushdie, due to the controversy sparked by his 1999 novel, The Art of Suicide.

Published works One Hundred Love Lyrics (1998) Messiah Desert (1998) The Art of Suicide (1999) English translations "Two Poems: 'Morning Feeling' and 'Elegy'," translated by Joshua L. Freeman, Hayden's Ferry Review 48, pp. 46–53 (2011) The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang, translated by Darren Byler and Anonymous, Columbia University Press (2022)