06 07 22- Elif Shafak biografical notes

Biographical Notes
Elif Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France in 1971. She spent her teenage years in Spain before returning to Turkey. She has published five novels, most recently, THE SAINT OF INCIPIENT INSANITIES, which is her first novel in English and which was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the fall of 2004.

Shafak is also a social scientist, graduated from International Relations at Middle East Technical University. She holds a Master of Science degree in Gender and Women Studies, and earned her PhD from the Department of Political Science. Her major in Contemporary Western Political Thought and her minor in Middle Eastern Studies, Shafak's academic background has been nurtured by a critical, interdisciplinary, and gender-conscious rereading of the literature on the Middle East & West, Islam, and modernity.

Elif Shafak's master’s thesis on Islam, women and mysticism, titled "The Deconstruction of Femininity Along the Cyclical Understanding of Heterodox Dervishes in Islam" was awarded by Social Scientists Institute. Shafak has taught “Ottoman History From the Margins,” “Turkey & Cultural Identities,” and “Women and Writing” in Istanbul Bilgi University.

In summer of 2002, Shafak came to the United States for the first time as one of the fellows chosen from different parts of the world by the Five Colleges Women’s Studies Research Center. During the academic year 2003-4, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, where she taught courses such as “Women Writing on Women: East-West Encounters” and “The Queer in the Middle East.” Currently, Shafak is an Assistant Professor in the Near Eastern Studies Department at The University of Arizona. Her courses include “Literature and Exile,” “Politics of Memory,” and “Sexualities and Gender in the Muslim World.”

An outspoken intellectual and activist, Elif Shafak continues to write for various daily and monthly publications in Turkey.

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Turkey: Author Elif Shafak , her Publisher and Translator Facing Trial (updated June 6, 2006)

Elif Shafak, a highly respected and best-selling author, is facing trial on charges of “insulting Turkishness” under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. Her publisher, Semi Sökmen of the Metis Publishing House, and translator Asli Bican are also facing charges. They are accused in connection with Shafak’s book, The Bastard of Istanbul. International PEN considers that Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code falls foul of international standards that protect the right to freedom of expression and to which Turkey is a signatory. It urges that the court hearing the case takes this breach into consideration and reconsiders its decision to proceed with the case.

One month ago, on 7 June 2006, the Beyoglu Public Prosecutor in Istanbul dismissed proceedings launched against Shafak after hearing Shafak and Sökmen’s argument that the book was a work of literature and it was therefore not appropriate for prosecution. They added that the book aimed to promote the culture of peace. However, in early July the Istanbul 7th High Criminal Court over-ruled the decision not to proceed, following a complaint filed by Kemal Kerincsiz, a member of a group of right wing lawyers known as the “Unity of Jurists” who have been active in the launching of prosecutions of numerous writers and journalists in recent months. The trial date has not yet been set.

Shafak’s book tells the story of two families – one based in Istanbul, the other an exiled Armenian family living in San Francisco - who share a family secret dating from the early 19th century that continues to effect the lives of their daughters in the present. Originally written in English, the book was published by the Metis Publishing House in March 2006 and has since become a best seller. It is due to be published in English by Viking/Penguin.

Elif Shafak was born in France and spent her childhood in Spain. After studying political science in Turkey, she held teaching positions in the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United States. She is now Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Near Eastern Studies at University of Arizona. Her publications include both novels and essays, among them The Saint of Incipient Insanities, which was her first book published in English, Bit Palas, Mahrem, which won the Turkish Writers’ Association Best Novel of the Year Award. For more details go to http://www.rusoffagency.com/fiction/thesaint/elif_shafak_bionotes.htm
Metis Publishing House website: http://www.metiskitap.com/Scripts/Catalog/Book.asp?ID=1930

Please send appeals:
Urging that there be a reconsideration of the decision to proceed with the case against Elif Shafak, Semih Sökmen and Asli Bican
Expressing dismay that writers, journalists and publishers continue to be brought before the courts in violation of their right to freedom of expression
Urging that there be an end to these trials and that there be a review its legislation with the aim of removing all remaining laws that allow for the prosecution of those who practice their right to write and publish freely
Calling on the Turkish government to do all that it can to abide by its commitments to the protection and promotion of freedom of expression
Appeals to:
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 417 0476
Foreign Minister and State Minister for Human Rights
Mr Abdullah Gül
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 287 8811
For further details contact Sara Whyatt at the Writers in Prison Committee
London Office: Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, WC1V 6ER
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7405 0338
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7405 0339
e-mail: wipc@internationalpen.org.uk

For more information on this issue please visit PEN United States at www.pen.org and PEN International at www.internationalpen.org.uk
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Elif Shafak was born in France, Strasbourg, in 1971. She spent her teenage years in Spain, before returning to Turkey.
Her first novel, Pinhan (The Sufi) (8th edition), which she published at age 27, was awarded the Rumi Prize, which is given to the best work in mystical/transcendental literature. The novel tells the story of a hermaphrodite mystic – a little known but revered tradition, inside the Sufi orders. The body with both sexual organs is astonishingly linked to the path of the dialectics of life in the outer order. As in Shafak's other works, Pinhan explores and challenges the question of identity at the nexus of physical and metaphysical definitions.

Her second novel, The Mirrors of the City (7th edition), is about the lives of convertors expelled from Spain, and especially, about one particular young Sephardic Jew – gifted with wit, fury and cynicism – who moves to 17th century Ottoman Empire. By bringing together Jewish and Islamic characters in Istanbul, the novel opens up questions on estrangement and deterritorialization.

Titled Mahrem (The Gaze) (8th edition), her third novel is about the interventionist gaze of the Muslim/Jalal God, of the society, as well as of the male lover. The novel traces the steps of the runaway of the female body that must search for its elusive autonomy while being encroached upon by the gazes of others. With an intricate plot and language, the novel travels from Siberia in 17th century to France in 19th century and the story finds its links back to the life of a bulimic woman and to her childhood and sexual abuse in 1980s Turkey, Istanbul. Reprinted many times, Mahrem received the Turkish Novel Award. An English translation of this book will published by Marion Boyars in 2006.

Elif Shafak published her fourth novel, The Flea Palace (9th edition), a humorously narrated story of an apartment building where all the characters and stories are interlaced to develop the theme of "the seen and the unseen degradation" – moral, physical, social as well as cultural – in the heart of the ageing city of Istanbul. In three months time, the book sold over 15,000 copies and for more than nine weeks it was a national best seller.The novel has been translated into English by Muge Gocek, and was published by Marion Boyars in the UK and the USA in Spring 2004. Elif Shafak completed her fifth novel in English. Entitled The Saint of Incipient Insanities, it was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in fall 2004.

Elif Shafak is also a social scientist, and graduated from International Relations at Middle East Technical University. She holds MSc degree from Gender and Women Studies, and has her PhD in the Department of Political Science.Her major in Contemporary Western Political Thought and her minor in Middle Eastern Studies, Elif Shafak's academic background has been nurtured by a critical, interdisciplinary and gender-conscious rereading of the literature on the Middle-East & West, Islam & modernity. Shafak's MS thesis on Islam, Women and Mysticism, titled 'The Deconstruction of Femininity Along the Cyclical Understanding of Heterodox Dervishes in Islam' was praised by the Social Scientists Institute. Shafak has taught 'Ottoman History From the Margins', 'Turkey & Cultural Identities' and 'Women and Writing' in Istanbul Bilgi University. Elif Shafak is a Visiting Scholar in Women's Studies at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on Women & Writing and Queer in the Middle East. Shafak is currently writing for various newspapers in Turkey. She contests the dominant and manipulative discourse of religious orthodoxy and nationalist ideologies. The dominance of established gender patterns and roles has been a central theme in her writings, fiction and non-fiction alike.


Bibliography

Fiction
Pinhan (1998)
The Mirrors of the City
The Gaze
The Flea Palace

V.V