Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British author born in 1971 in Strasbourg, widely regarded as the most widely read female writer in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English and has published 21 books - 13 of them novels - translated into nearly 60 languages. Her fiction weaves together East and West, past and present, exploring identity, love and political repression. She is best known internationally for The Forty Rules of Love (2009) and There Are Rivers in the Sky (2024), which became the UK's bestselling literary hardback of 2025.
Shafak's new novel "In One Brief Moment All Eternity" - about the women behind Gustave Flaubert - is announced for release on October 15, 2026 by the publisher Viking.
Shafak was appointed president of the Royal Society of Literature, succeeding Bernardine Evaristo.
Shafak delivered the National Humanities Lecture 2026 at University of London's Senate House and simultaneously received a Public Humanities Fellowship.
"There Are Rivers in the Sky" won the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award 2025 and the Prix Fragonard de Littérature Étrangère.
Shafak received the British Academy President's Medal for her entire body of work with its "incredible intercultural range".
😴 Nothing scheduled with this artist in the near future.
75lectureWed 25.11.Lecture with Nikolaj Jacobsen - The World's Best Nikolaj
74lectureThu 13.5.Lecture with Frank Arnesen & Søren Lerby - The Good Stories
72lectureThu 19.11.Svend Brinkmann
69lectureSun 25.10.Evening with Elin Brimheim Heinesen FO
68lectureSat 21.11.Introduction to Knit Design
67lectureSat 14.11.Lecture with Daniel Rye - Hostage for 398 Days
67lectureWed 18.11.Lecture with Rasmus Tantholdt - My World in Change
67lectureWed 3.2.Lecture with Preben Elkjær - My Life as Elkjær
67lectureThu 29.4.Lecture with Mette Grith Stage - The Defence Lawyer
65lectureWed 14.10.The Gospel Experience: WORKSHOP with Hezekiah Walker (USA), Mark Taylor (USA), Hans Christian Jochimsen (DK)
65lectureMon 19.10.Culture Coffee with Finn Nørbygaard: My Ups and Downs... and What I Learned from It!
65lectureTue 10.11.Science & Cocktails in X31: The Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms