Roy Wang

Elif Shafak is an author. Born in Strasbourg, France in 1971, she graduated from the Department of International Relations at METU (Middle East Technical University), completed her master's degree in Women's Studies at the same university, and earned her doctorate in Political Science. Her undergraduate thesis, "Femininity-Cyclicality in Bektashi and Mevlevi Thought," was awarded by the Social Sciences Association. Her first short story collection, *Kem Gözlere Anadolu* (Anadolu to Eyes of Stone), was published in 1994. Her first novel, *Pinhan* (Hidden), received the Mevlana Grand Prize in 1998. This was followed by *Şehrin Aynaları* (Mirrors of the City) and *Mahrem* (Intimate), which won her the Turkish Writers' Union Award in 2000. This novel brought her widespread recognition, and she continued with *Bit Palas* (Bit Palace) in 2002 and *Araf* (The Island of Missing Trees) in 2004, both published in the Metis Literature series. She compiled her writings on womanhood, identity, cultural division, language, and literature in *Med-Cezir* (Ebb and Flow) in 2005. Elif Shafak writes for various newspapers and magazines in Europe and the US. She has been a faculty member at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University. Her 2006 novel, *Baba ve Piç* (The Bastard of Istanbul), became one of the year's most popular books and was published in English by Viking/Penguin, a leading publisher, in early 2007. Besides her books, she also wrote the screenplay for the Menekşe ile Halil TV series.