Beste Filiz (she/her) was born in Istanbul, a city where two continents meet. She was a child asylum seeker and refugee at three years old when her family was forced to flee Türkiye to London, England. She is now a Turkish-British-American writer for young people. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in 2025. She is a recipient of the 2023 Walter Dean Myers Grant from We Need Diverse Books and a mentee in the 2025 We Need Diverse Books Mentorship Program. She lives in Northern California with her non-binary partner and three cats.
