Elif Shafak

Elif Safak is a Turkish speaker, columnist, and author that has earned the title of most popular female novelist in Turkey. Safak is the daughter of diplomat Safak Atayman and philosopher Nuri Bilgin. Her parents separated when she was little, and she was for the most part brought up by her mother, which had a significant influence on her later writing and work. As a child raised in a single parent household she felt more affinity to her mother, and hence she took up her mother’s first name Safak as a middle name in many of her works. In 2010, she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She sits on Creative Economy’ Weforum Global Agenda Council, is a speaker at TED Global, and one of the founders of the European Council on Foreign relations (ECFR). With over 10 novels and 5 nonfiction works, Safak writes novels in English and Turkish that blend Eastern and Western traditions of storytelling in telling narratives about youth, subcultures, immigrants, minorities, and women. Her writing is inspired by the diverse literary traditions and cultures reflecting cultural politics, oral culture, Sufism, philosophy, and history.