Cem Akaş, born in 1968 in Mannheim, Germany, lives in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied chemical engineering at the Bogazici University in Istanbul, as well as political sciences at Columbia University in New York, earning his PhD in history at the Bogazici University. From 1992 to 2004, Cem Akas worked for one of the largest publishing houses in Turkey, “Yapi Kredi Yayinlari”, and in 2005, he founded an own publishers’ group. He is a free-lance author (of novels, short stories and essays), who has published numerous books, most recently: Guarding the State, political sciences (Charleston, SC, 2010), 19, a novel, (Istanbul, 2009), Gitmeyecekler için Urbino, a novel (Istanbul, 2007), Selected Short Stories, published by Öykü Seçkisi (Istanbul, 2002), Olgunluk Çağı Üçlemesi, a novel (Istanbul, 2001). One of his short stories, Wo ist der Teppich (Where is the Carpet) has appeared in German in: Unser Istanbul (Berlin 2008).
