Delal Arya is a Turkish author, Italian and English translator and editor. She has two series: Pera Diaries (Pera Günlükleri) and Seven Seas (Yedi Denizlerde). She was born in Istanbul, and thanks to her father’s job as a captain, her childhood was spent aboard ships. Her maritime adventures with the monkey and parrot who joined her in Nigeria, and the atmosphere of far off lands had a lasting influence upon her writing. She began to write during those years, on the upper side of the bunk bed she shared with her older sister in their small cabin. If the sea possesses half of her soul, it is Istanbul that owns the other half. She grew up in Istanbul where she attended Italian schools. Her time in the city was spent exploring hidden passageways underneath the buildings of her schools and the historic part of the city where she lived, trying to solve the meanings of the curious etchings on the walls, and listening to scary stories about the city told by sailors. Her interest in mysteries and ancient civilizations inspired her to study archeology. She writes her books in exotic locations such as on board a container ship headed towards Africa, or a cabin inside a snowy forest filled with wild animals. She currently lives in Minnesota, USA with her husband and twin children.
