AUTHOR: SEVİM AK

Born in Samsun, Sevim Ak graduated from Yıldız Technical University, Department of Chemical Engineering in 1976. After her specialization in biochemistry, she worked in Heybeliada Sanatorium and private clinics for twenty-five years. Sevim Ak's passion for writing, which she likens to 'playing games', dates back to her student years and her first story was published in the Sunday supplement of Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1985. Her first children's book, Uçurtmam Bulut Şimdi (My Kite Is Umbrella Now) (1987), won the Akademi Kitabevi Children's Literature Story Award in the same year it was published. Her children's play Düşlere Sobe was staged at Istanbul City Theaters, and the play adapted from her book Horoz Adam (Rooster Man) and Korsan (The Pirate) with the same name was staged at Ankara State Theaters. Horoz Adam (Rooster Man) and Korsan (The Pirate) were also selected for the Board of Books for Children and Young People (IBBY) catalog of "Outstanding Books for Children and Young People with Disabilities". Between 2000 and 2007, within the scope of İLKYAR Foundation's Traveling Projects, with the support of METU, she collected his memories and impressions of the story reading and writing activities she carried out in 160 regional boarding schools and 30 village schools in the book Güneşin Çocukları. The results of these activities were published in various issues of Lignes D'Ecritures in France. She wrote more than thirty books for children. Some of her books have been translated into German, Arabic, Korean and Dutch. Her illustrated story book Kırık Şemsiye (Broken Umbrella) was selected as the Best Illustrated Book of 2006 by the Association of Children and Youth Publications (ÇGYD). She was nominated for two prestigious awards, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2009 and the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012, both of which are considered the Nobel Prizes of children's literature. She has written scripts for children's television programs and stories for the animated series Leylek Kardeş (The Stork Brother). In 2023, when he celebrated his 35th year in literature, he received the Oğuz Tansel Children's Literature Award at the Troy Culture and Art Awards organized by the Troy Folklore Research Association. Sevim Ak, who always finds herself in a new book while thinking about children's problems, lives in Istanbul. She narrates completely different lives and dreams in the city's streets and islands, which she especially loves, accompanied by cats and seagulls.