Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist, activist, political scientist and essayist. She has published 19 books — her latest, The Island of Missing Trees, was shortlisted for the 2021 Costa Book Award. It tells the story of Kostas who is Greek and Defne who is Turkish and the love that they must keep secret.
Shafak’s 2006 book The Bastard of Istanbul saw the author prosecuted on charges of "insulting Turkishness" for discussing the Armenian genocide. Shafak was acquitted on the charges brought against her, but she shifted her family to the UK and hasn't returned to Turkey since.
Shafak holds a PhD in political science and has been an outspoken critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
To hear more from Elif Shafak, stay tuned for the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts revised programme under Red, to be announced Thursday 10 February, sign up for news here.
Photo: Muammer Yanmaz / Supplied
