Elif Shafak

Zeynep Atayurt Fenge (Ankara University)

Ed. by Cristina Sandru, The Literary Encyclopedia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.1.1.02: Turkish Writing and Culture: Modern and Contemporary, 1922-present.

Dates

Born 25 Oct 1971
Activity 1998-ongoing

Places

Born in France
Active in Turkey; United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Novelist

Resources

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&…

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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 29 March 2023.]

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