Elif Batuman

Elif Batuman was born in New York City, and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from Harvard college, and completed her doctoral degree in comparative literature at Standord University. In graduate school, Batuman studied Uzbek language in Samarkand. In 2010, she published her first book “The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them” (Macmillan, 2010). It has been translated into several languages. Her writings have been published in many journals, magazines, and newspapers such as New Yorker, New York Times, Harper′s, and The Gardian. Currently, Dr. Batuman is a staff writer for the New Yorker, and writer-in-residence at Koç University.

Awards:
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers′ Award, 2007.
Whiting Writers′ Award, 2010.

Reference: elifbatuman.net