It's Bursa prison, mid-winter 1940. Two prisoners meet, both writers, both serving long sentences for allegedly inciting Turkish soldiers to mutiny. One is Turkey's most famous poet, Nazim Hikmet. The other is a young, aspiring poet, Orhan Kemal, who now shares a cell with the man whose work he has long admired. In this prison memoir, Orhan Kemal reminisces on the time he shared with the great poet and describes how Hikmet inspired him to become one of Turkey's most popular and successful novelists. "In Jail with Nazim Hikmet" also includes Kemal's diary entries on Nazim and the latter's correspondence with Kemal after his release from prison in 1943.