Sevim Ak: Turkey ★ Author

“I become the mother of the characters I create.”

Sevim Ak

Sevim Ak was born on the Black Sea Coast in Samsun, Turkey in 1954. She spent much of her childhood observing the intricate details of everyday events in her Samsun neighborhood, which is one of the most prolific sources of inspiration for her writing. After becoming top student in her high school, Ak’s parents and teachers encouraged her to pursue a career in the sciences, where she thrived. Although she followed her father’s advice and became a chemical engineer, she continued to write as a personal creative outlet.

Her first book to be published was a collection of her short stories entitled My Kite is a Cloud Now, which was accepted by Redhouse Publishing House in 1987. Sevim Ak’s talent was evident from the beginning, and this first collection won the Akademi Bookstore’s Children’s Literature Story Prize. Ak’s talents also extend beyond short stories to writing novels, journals, and plays.

It is important for Ak to maintain the child’s point-of-view throughout her writing. She is able to view the world from a child’s perspective, and therefore creates vivid emotions and stories with which all children can easily empathize. Rather than creating immature characters who merely entertain her young readers, her characters are fully developed, realistic and human. Ak has a deep respect for her own inner-child, and therefore acknowledges realistic experiences to which the average child can relate. She believes that children are able to possess a mature understanding of the world as long as adults take them seriously, and this belief is constantly reiterated in her down-to-earth characters.

Sevim Ak has participated in many programs that increase children’s literacy by encouraging them to read and write. To this end, she has worked with such organizations as The Association in Support of Contemporary Life (ÇGYD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and GAP. One of the most notable acts of civil service to come from Ak’s work was the use of thirteen of her short stories in a psychosocial rehabilitation project undertaken by the Tel-Aviv Municipality Psychological Health Center to help young survivors of the Marmara earthquake in 1999 grieve and deal with their traumatic experiences.