Selçuk Altun was born in Artvin, Turkey in 1950 and graduated at Bosphorus University. Now retired, he was for many years executive chairman of one of Turkey's largest and most influential literary publishing houses – YKY (Yapi Kredi Publications). His first novel was published in Turkey in 2001. Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, his fourth, and the first to be translated into English, was published in 2008. His latest novel, Many and Many a Year Ago, is just out.