Author • Turkish literature

Figen Şakacı

Born in İstanbul in 1971, she graduated from İstanbul University’s Faculty of Communication. She worked as a reporter and columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and wrote screenplays and stage plays. She later took to the stage with one-woman shows exploring relationships between women and men. Following her biographical interview collections Her Doğum Bir Mucizedir (2005) and Mizah Zekânın Zekatıdır (2007), she published Bitirgen in 2011, the first volume of a trilogy, followed by Pala Hayriye (2013) and Hayriye Hanım’ı Kim Çaldı? (2017), which completed the trilogy. Her play Topuklu Terlik Süt Yapar, adapted from the story “Pişti” in Pala Hayriye, was published as a book under the same title in 2019. Şakacı’s short story collection Kesekli Tarla appeared in 2020 and in 2022 she brought together the growing-up stories of 12 contemporary Turkish auhtors in Herkes Bir Anda Büyür. Her latest novel is HınçAhınç (2024). In Tenderhearted (Tımbıllı, 2026), written for Günışığı Kitaplığı’s Bridge Books collection, she tells the story of a sensitive child struggling to cope with separation, longing and the growing pains of adolescence.