Azra Kohen facts for kids

Azra "Akilah" Kohen (born 1979) is a Turkish record-breaking author. After releasing her first novel, Fi, under the name Akilah, she started to release her subsequent novels, Çi and Pi under the name Azra Kohen. She later published best-selling novels Aeden in 2017 and Gör Beni in 2019. Her books are still bestsellers (2022) in Turkey and she is the first Turkish novelist to reach the top 6 in the Italian bestselling list with her first 3 books called trilogy of Phi.

Early life and career

Azra Kohen was born as "Azra Sarızeybek" in 1979 in İzmir. She graduated from the Faculty of Communication, Radio, Television and Cinema, at Istanbul University. Azra Kohen later studied Economics at Ottawa University in Canada. She said that her main motivation for educating herself was to "learn more about this world". She speaks English and Italian.

Her trilogy narrative series Fi, Çi and Pi were translated to Italian. The series also became popular in the form of an Internet series called Fi, and Kohen expressed her intention to author a book about what happened to her during the production process of Fi. As of August 2023, she was the only Turkish author with all five of her books Fi, Çi, Pi, Aeden, Gör Beni still present in the top 10 list. Kohen stated in 2017 that she was working on two other books, Nakar and Dinle Beni.

Personal life

She married Sadok Kohen in 2001 and the couple's son was born in 2009. Kohen explained in an interview that she was not a vegetarian, but she was trying to be one. In 2024 she publicly stated she believed certain Palestinians were responsible for the deaths of their own children in the Gaza Strip. After this statement, publishers denounced her claims and dropped her books.

Awards

• Elele Avon Author of the Year Award (2018)
• Işık Association The Best Author of the Year (2019)
• Hacettepe University The Best Author of the Year (2020)

Works

• Fi
• Çi
• Pi
• Aeden
• Gör Beni