Elif Shafak
25 October 1971 – present
Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist and essayist who writes in both Turkish and English. Her novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, deal with Ottoman and modern Turkish history, mysticism and the lives of women and minorities. She was prosecuted in Turkey in 2006 over passages in one of her novels and was acquitted; she later settled in London.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Elif Shafak.
- Ada Yonath (1939–2026) Overlapped 55 years →
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 55 years →
- Ai Weiwei (1957–present) Overlapped 55 years →
- Akira Yoshino (1948–present) Overlapped 55 years →
- Alex Ferguson (1941–present) Overlapped 55 years →
- Ali Daei (1969–present) Overlapped 55 years →
Life events
Born to Turkish parents; she spent parts of her childhood in Ankara, Madrid and Amman.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe later completed a master's degree and a doctorate in political science at the same university.
The Turkish-language novel drew on Sufi themes and won the Mevlana Prize.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHeld teaching and fellowship positions at American universities, including the University of Arizona.
Her novel about two families, Turkish and Armenian-American, became a bestseller in Turkey.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCharged with insulting Turkishness over dialogue in The Bastard of Istanbul; the case was dismissed.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgA novel about Rumi and Shams of Tabriz that became one of her most widely translated books.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMade the United Kingdom her main base and later took British citizenship.
The novel was among the six titles shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize.
Source: en.wikipedia.org