Elif Safak
Encyclopedia
Elif Şafak (born 1971, Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, France) is a Turkish writer who writes in both Turkish and English. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Fiction

Shafak has published twelve books, seven of which are novels. She writes in both Turkish and English. Her most recent novel, written in English, The Forty Rules of Love, was published in the U.S. in February 2010 and in the UK by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

 in June 2010. Selling more than 550,000 copies it became a record best-seller in Turkey. Shafak is also a best-selling author in Italy, France and Bulgaria.

Shafak's first novel, Pinhan (The Mystic) was awarded the Rumi Prize in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City), brings together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting in the 17th century Mediterranean. Şhafak's novel Mahrem (The Gaze), earned her the Union of Turkish Writers' Prize in 2000. Her next novel, Bit Palas (The Flea Palace), was a bestseller in Turkey. The book was followed by Med-Cezir, a non-fiction book of essays on gender, sexuality, mental ghettoes, and literature.

Shafak's first novel to be written in English, The Saint of Incipient Insanities, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2004. Her second novel in English, The Bastard of Istanbul, was the bestselling book of 2006 in Turkey. The novel resulted in charges being brought against Shafak for "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301, but the charges were subsequently dismissed.

In July 2010 Shafak gave a speech at TED Oxford on “The Politics of Fiction”. She talked about the role of literature in helping leap over cultural walls and embrace different experiences and argued that fiction can overcome the limits of identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...

 politics. She said, “knowledge that does not take us beyond is far worse than ignorance.”

Her forthcoming novel is set in London in the 1960s and 70s and concerns the experiences of an immigrant family.

Early life

Shafak was born Elif Bilgin in Strasbourg to philosopher Nuri Bilgin and Şafak Atayman who later became a diplomat. When she was a year old her parents separated and Shafak was raised by a single mother. She said that not growing up in a typical patriarchal family had a great impact on her work and writing. She incorporated her mother's first name, which means Dawn, with her own when constructing her pen name.

Shafak spent her teenage years in Madrid and Philadelphia
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

 before returning to Turkey. She has also lived in Boston, Michigan, Arizona, Istanbul and London.

Istanbul

Istanbul has always been a central part of Shafak’s writing. According to Shafak, "In Istanbul, you understand, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary ideas, ones that can be de-imagined and re-imagined." In the same essay written for Time Magazine Shafak says "East and West is no water and oil. They do mix. And in a city like Istanbul they mix intensely, incessantly, amazingly."

In a piece she wrote for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, she said, “Istanbul is like a huge, colourful Matrushka - you open it and find another doll inside. You open that, only to see a new doll nesting. It is a hall of mirrors where nothing is quite what it seems. One should be cautious when using categories to talk about Istanbul. If there is one thing the city doesn't like, it is clichés."

In 2005, Shafak married Turkish journalist Eyüp Can
Eyüp Can (journalist)
Eyüp Can Sağlık is a Turkish journalist and currently editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper Referans.After graduating in Communications from Istanbul University in 1993, he earned a Master's degree in American Foreign Policy and Middle East Relations in Center for Middle Eastern Studies at...

 and has two children. She named her daughter after Zelda Fitzgerald and her son after a story by Borges, The Zahir.

Sufism

Shafak first became interested in Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

 as a college student in her early 20s. In The Forty Rules of Love, she tackles the subject with a modern love story between a Jewish-American housewife and a modern Sufi living in Amsterdam. She said in an interview given to the Guardian, "The more you read about Sufism, the more you have to listen. In time I became emotionally attached. When I was younger I wasn't interested in understanding the world. I only wanted to change it, through feminism or nihilism or environmentalism. But the more I read about Sufism the more I unlearned. Because that is what Sufism does to you, it makes you erase what you know, what you are so sure of. And then start thinking again. Not with your mind this time, but with your heart."

Motherhood, feminism and post-feminism

Shafak grew up with two very different models of Turkish motherhood – her modern, working, educated mother and her traditional, religious grandmother.

Her novel, The Forty Rules of Love is concerned with questions of motherhood and selfhood. Ella Rubenstein, the middle-aged American housewife and mother at the heart of the novel, is unhappily married to an unfaithful and neglectful husband, and in thrall to the needs of her children. Her own life and needs and aspirations have been lost along the way, as has her belief in love.

Academic life

Shafak is a political scientist, having graduated from the program in International Relations at Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...

 in Turkey. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and a Ph.D. in political science from the same university. Her master’s thesis on Islam, women, and mysticism received an award from the Social Scientists Institute.

Shafak continues to write for various daily and monthly publications in Turkey. She has also contributed to various papers, including The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

, Berliner Zeitung
Berliner Zeitung
The Berliner Zeitung, founded in 1945, is a German center-left daily newspaper based in Berlin, published by Berliner Verlag. It is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since unification. In 2003, the Berliner was Berlin's largest subscription newspaper—the weekend...

, Dutch Handelsbladt, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, and Time (Magazine)
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, and has been featured in the U.S. on National Public Radio.

Awards

  • Chevalier Des Arts et Lettres
    Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
    The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

  • Turkish Journalists and Writers Foundation "The Art of Coexistence Award-2009"
  • International Rising Talent, Women's Forum - Deauville, France 2009
  • The Bastard of Istanbul, Long listed for Orange Prize for Fiction
    Orange Prize for Fiction
    The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...

    , London 2008
  • Maria Grazia Cutuli Award - International Journalism Prize, Italy 2006
  • The Flea Palace, Short listed for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
    Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
    The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the financial support...

    , United Kingdom 2006
  • The Gaze, Union of Turkish Writers' Best Novel Prize, 2000
  • Pinhan, The Great Rumi Award, Turkey 1998

External links

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