Hatice Akyün

Hatice Akyün is a German-Turkish journalist and author. After a year as an Au paire in New York, Akyön studied business management at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Dusseldorf. At the same time she worked as a freelance journalist for the local editor at the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). She moved to Berlin in 2000, where she worked as a society reporter for the magazine, Max. In 2009, Hatice Akyün was awarded the Duisburg prize for tolerance and civil courage. The jury, that selected Hatice Akyün for this award was composed of various representatives from different areas of the public life. This jury decided that Ms. Akyün’s work showed the support of tolerance, and the impact that language has on effective integration. Her stories call attention to a culture that incorporates tolerant living together as well as the subject of integration from several points of view.