Serpil Ural: Turkey ⋆ Author

"When I consider what I wanted the children to gain from my books, that two-part category comes to mind: 'Roots and wings': roots to introduce their culture in such a way to give the child a sense of identity; wings to motivate their fantasy, to give them a means of getting rid of prejudice, gain tolerance and the ability to participate freely in a multi-cultural world."

Serpil Ural

Born in Western Turkey in 1945, Serpil Ural attended schools in Istanbul and the United States before majoring in Graphic Design at the School of Applied Fine Arts in Istanbul. After graduating, Ural worked as a copywriter in an advertising agency. She began writing books for children after marrying and moving to Ankara in 1977, and published her first book, a picture book about a chubby bunny, in 1979. Her texts have rarely been as light-hearted as she grapples with difficult issues that affect real children. Ural's concerns include environmental problems, war and death, divorce, and physical challenges. She was the first Turkish author to create a picture book on disability, and has been a groundbreaker throughout her career, including her recent collaborations with authors from other countries and cultures. Her books about other cultures, including India and Spain, promote cultural diversity. To that same end, Ural translates books from English into Turkish, and her work has been translated into other languages as well.

Aside from her work writing books for children, Ural has been a tireless advocate for the field in her country. She began working towards a Turkish section of IBBY as early as 1980, after a trip to the IBBY Secretariat in Basel. That effort was realized in 1994. In 1980, with a research grant from the International Youth Library in Munich, Ural research the history of environmental issues in children's literature and later published her findings. Ural does volunteer work for children's literacy, including working in a Bookmobile that distributes books to children in rural areas. She also participates in workshops, conferences, and exhibits, and contributes book reviews to a periodical aimed at parents and teachers. Ural recently served on the Board of Consultants on Children's Literature to the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and she teaches a course in the field at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.