Şiirsel Siirsel_TasTaş was born in Istanbul in 1971. She graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine and after completing radiation oncology residency training she started working as a translator, editor and consultant in medical publishing, and writing children’s literature. She focused mainly on nature and urban ecology as a writer, and as a translator on science books on medicine and natural sciences. She has translated works of Atul Gawande, Gavin Francis and Sherwin Nuland, many fiction and non-fiction books for children and has written more than a hundred articles for review journals on children’s literature. She has been nominated to 2023 ALMA (Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award).  

Works: Dreamwolf Had a Dream (Düşkurdu Bir Düş Kurdu), 2006, stories; Snow Spot Inky Spot (Kar Benek Kara Benek), 2008, picture book; Diary of Creepy Crawlies (Börtü Böcek Güncesi), 2010, novel; Who’s Afraid of the Blue Wolf? (Kim Korkar Mavi Kurttan?), 2010, picture book; Zincir (The Chain), 2012, novel; Left or Right? (Sol Sağ Kitabım), 2017, picture book (translated into Chinese, Spanish, Portugese, Catalan, Italian); Sequoiamum’s Doors (Sekoyana’nın Kapıları), 2017, novel (selected for the White Ravens catalogue 2018); Being a Forest (Büyük Sevbeni), 2019, picture book (translated into Estonian); The Bittern (Balaban), 2019, picture book; Carriwitchets of Spokesheep (Sözcü Koyunların Sözcük Oyunları), 2019, novel; For the Bird, For the Furred, For the Hearth (Kurda Kuşa Aşa), 2021, novel.