Elif Shafak

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Elif Shafak () is a Turkish writer, essayist, feminist, activist for women's rights.

Shafak writes in Turkish and English. There are 19 books published, 12 of which are novels, and her work is translated into 55 different languages.

Shafak is an activist for women's rights, minorities and freedom of speech. Among the topics on which he writes and speaks are also global and cultural policy, the future of Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, pluralism and democracy.

Biography
Shafak's real name is Elif Bilgin. She was born on 25 October 1971 in Strasbourg, France, in the family of philosopher Nuri Bilgin and Shafak Atayman, who later became a diplomat. When she's one, her parents get divorced. After her parents' divorce, she stays with her mother and both live in Spain and Jordan, then return to Turkey. Shafak believes that not growing up in a traditional patriarchal family has a significant impact on her work.

She graduated from the Technical University in Ankara, defended a thesis on philosophy devoted to problems of gender identity. After a year of scholarship training in the United States, she was invited as a lecturer at several American universities.

Lives in Turkey and the US, writes in Turkish and English, published articles and comments in the press in the US and Europe.

When he was 18 years old, he combined his first name with his mother's first name (şafak, meaning "Zorza") and thus created his creative pseudonym.

Shafak spent his teenage years in Madrid and Aman, then returned to Turkey. She's lived all over the world. She's affected her writing. It does not see itself as migrating from country to country, from city to city, but from language to language. Even in her native Turkish language she plays with the words of different cultures. All the time, however, remains deeply connected to Istanbul, which has a leading role in its works. As a result, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism are invariably linked to both her life and her work.

In 2005, she was married to the Turkish journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper, Radikal.

In early April 2012, Shafak visited Sofia to present his novel Honor. I met people with wonderful minds and wonderful souls.

At the end of 2013, Shafak was elected vice president of the Royal Society of Literature.

Shefak has lived in London with her husband and their two children since 2013, often traveling to Istanbul.

In 2017, Shafak publicly revealed that she was bisexual. This recognition was made on her second appearance in front of the audience of TED (the first was in 2010). At this moment in her speech she says: