Elif Shafak

Zeynep Atayurt Fenge (Ankara University)
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Elif Şafak (Anglicised as Shafak) is a contemporary Turkish writer who has received critical acclaim for both her novels and her non-fiction works. To date, she has written eleven novels, one short story collection, seven works of non-fiction, one book of selected quotations, and one children’s book. Her works have been translated into many languages, and have received national and international recognition. She was born in Strasbourg to intellectual parents, her father Nuri Bilgin working in academia, and her mother Şafak Atayman later becoming a diplomat for the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and Shafak’s mother emerged as the dominant figure, a detail emphasized by Shafak’s adoption of her mother’s forename as her own surname.…

3341 words

Citation: Atayurt Fenge, Zeynep. "Elif Shafak". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 May 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14489, accessed 28 March 2024.]

14489 Elif Shafak 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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