Mely Kiyak, the daughter of Kurdish Turks, was born in Germany in 1976. She is a journalist and columnist, and her work appears in various newspapers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Frankfurter Rundschau, and Die Zeit, among them.  The excerpt published in Words without Borders is taken from her well-received book chronicling her father's struggle with lung cancer, Herr Kiyak dachte, jetzt fängt der schöne Teil des Lebens an, published in 2013. Her book Ein Garten liegt verschwiegen . . . , the story of an abbey in Fulda, appeared in 2011. A collection of her political columns has appeared in book form, and she is a 2010 recipient of the Theodor-Wolff-Prize (category Essay/Commentary). She lives in Berlin.