Author • Turkish literature • Illustrator

Behiç Ak

He was born in Samsun and studied architecture at Yıldız Technical University and İstanbul Technical University. He’s a well-known cartoonist, author, illustrator, and documentary film director. Since 1982 he’s been drawing the cartoon strip “Kim Kime Dum Duma” that criticizes daily life. His cartoons were exhibited in several countries like Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. Besides his plays Ayrılık and Bina, his two other plays Fay Hattı and Tek Kişilik Şehir were staged in Europe and attracted big interest. The documentary film he produced and directed in 1994, Türk Sinemasında Sansürün Tarihi – Siyahperde won the “Best Documentary Film” award in the same year at Ankara Film Festival. In 2012, he was deemed worthy of the Achievement and Contribution in Architecture Prize by the Chamber of Architects TMMOB for his cartoons, writings, plays, and stance on environmental and architectural issues. After 1981, Behiç Ak concentrated mostly on children’s books which he writes and illustrates at the same time. He gathered lots of attention from readers of all ages with his “Cheerful Stories” series covering books based on social criticism. His award-winning, colourful picture book The Plain Tree with High Blood Pressure (Yüksek Tansiyonlu Çınar Ağacı, 2009), which was first published in Japan and later renewed and published in Türkiye by Günışığı Kitaplığı was translated also to Chinese in 2014. His other picture books, Marbles (Bilyeler, 2014) and The Cloud that Came Indoors (Gökdelene Giren Bulut, 2017) were also renewed by Günışığı Kitaplığı. His “Chubby Books” series is an introduction to philosophy for very young readers and covers 5 titles. Caricatures selected from his archive of 40 years were collected in The Book of Cartoons (Karikatür Kitabı, 2012) and Hooray for Kids! (Yaşasın Çocuklar!, 2021). His children’s novel Hurray for the Brotherhood of Ç! (Yaşasın Ç Harfi Kardeşliği, 2013) received IBBY Turkey’s “Children’s Novel of the Year” award in 2013 and “2014 Children and Young Adult’s Novel” award of Ankara University, Children and YA Books Research Centre. Among his 11 children’s novels, the latest two are Ball Hanging in the Air (Havada Asılı Kalan Top, 2021), which highlights the curiosity and creativity of children while revealing the child hidden inside every adult and The Parrot at the Barbershop (Berberdeki Papağan, 2022) which tells the role of stories and art in the transformation of societies. His colourful scientific story, Ayşe’s Cloud Project (Ayşe’nin Bulut Projesi, 2023), published by Günışığı Kitaplığı as the first book of the new collection supporting “Climate Action”, draws attention to the world’s most urgent problem, water crisis. Behiç Ak, who also writes for adults, reunited with his readers again in 2024 with his story book The Idleness of Stars (Yıldızların Tembelliği) and his novel Sleep City (Uyku Şehir). In 2019, Behiç Ak was honoured by Ankara – Çankaya Municipality as an important cultural figure of Türkiye, with a big exhibition opening in Zülfü Livaneli Cultural Center, covering examples from his works. He was the 2021 ALMA (Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award) and 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award nominee of IBBY Turkey. Ak lives in İstanbul.