Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak

Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak

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Writers In Conversation
It was a true pleasure to have this amazing conversation with Junot Diaz on Substack, live and spontaneous, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined…
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Elif Shafak
3
1:16
Where Do Writers Find Their Inspiration?
Sometimes at literary festivals and book events people ask me where writers find their inspiration and new ideas.
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Elif Shafak
56
For The Reader Who Doesn't Read
‘So much is happening in the world today that I don’t have time to read fiction.
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Elif Shafak
50

June 2025

Stories Spread Faster than Hatred
There is an ancient and universal truth that every storyteller knows, perhaps less intellectually than instinctively: that there is a strong organic…
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Elif Shafak
19
All Literature is a Love Letter
“To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written." So said…
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Elif Shafak
72
How to Make The Ordinary Extraordinary
Love...
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Elif Shafak
31
Does Heartbreak Make You a Better Poet?
Across the centuries, the most famous love story in the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia has been that of Layla and Majnun.
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Elif Shafak
47
The Astonishing Light of Your Being
Aida...
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Elif Shafak
48

May 2025

Good Old Laughter In Times of Sadness
Humour….
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Elif Shafak
29
What One Thousand and One Nights Can Teach Us Today
“You must have grown up with different stories in Turkey,” said an American scholar to me many years ago.
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Elif Shafak
36
Writers and Mental Health Struggles:
Wounds Into Healing Words
54
Homo sapiens or Homo narrans?: Storytelling Tribe
This novel is the work of a junior sc…
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Elif Shafak
34
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