Writer Elif Shafak: The Transformative Power of Literature

Video Description

Meet writer Elif Shafak, for whom storytelling is not only a profession but a profound calling that connects the heart and the mind, fosters empathy, and challenges cultural divides. “Books became my friends, my companions, from an early age,” Elif Shafak shares. Growing up as an only child, raised by her mother and grandmother in Turkey and later in Spain, books became a refuge: “I thought life was very boring.” As Shafak calls it, “storyland” offered more life than the world around her, opening doors to other existences. “As a writer, I’m interested in this feeling of otherness,” she says. The feeling of being an outsider created a threshold perspective – a vantage point that let her explore forgotten history and overlooked existences. “I think storytellers are not only drawn to stories,” she says and continues, “I believe we’re equally drawn to silences and the silenced. Istanbul shaped Elif Shafak and her literature in many ways, but as she puts it: “Being a Turkish novelist sometimes can be a heavy experience. Being a female novelist from Turkey can sometimes be even heavier,” Shafak says. Feeling at home in English, Elif Shafak moved to London more than a decade ago, which also marked a shift from writing her novels in Turkish, her mother tongue, to English: “What I found in this language was an additional sense of freedom. And taking a step back and putting a bit of cognitive distance between myself and the culture where I come from, maybe allowed me to see the place where I come from much more closely.” “The novel as a form is such a lonely art.” But as Elif Shafak further explains, “you connect with humanity while you’re writing.” Shafak will always defend diversity, empathy and curiosity. She argues against dismissing fiction as merely being fantasy, affirming its power to bring us closer to the truth. “I think we live in a world in which we are bombarded with snippets of information every single day, every moment,” Shafak says, continuing: “But nobody can know something about everything. We forgot to say ‘I don’t know’.” Being an avid reader is crucial to being a writer: “And the second thing I believe writers need to be in addition to being good readers is good listeners. Just try to listen to what people are saying, with what kind of emotions they’re saying, what they’re saying, but also the gaps between the words, the silences, the pauses, the buried stories.” Elif Shafak (b. 1971, Strasbourg, France) is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. She is a bestselling author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, in many countries worldwide. Shafak’s novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President's Medal for ‘her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range’. Elif Shafak was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen in London, England, June 2025. Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard Produced and edited by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025 Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond and Ny Carlsbergfondet Subscribe to our channel for more videos on literagture: https://www.youtube.com/thelouisianachannel FOLLOW US HERE: Website: http://channel.louisiana.dk Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/louisianachannel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouisianaChannel