Alev Croutier is the most widely published woman novelist of Turkish origin. Her work has been translated into twenty-one languages.

Croutier studied at Robert College in Istanbul and at Oberlin College in the US. Later, she wrote and directed films in Japan, Middle East, Europe, and the US. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Tell Me A Riddle based on the Tillie Olsen's novella. She was the commentator of the Canadian Film Board series The Powder Room, BBC's Mozart in Turkey, Channel 4's The Reign of Women and Harem.

Entering a career in publishing as the founding editor of Mercury House, she worked as the executive editor for seven years. Her articles have appeared in both literary and mainstream magazines (Art & Antiques, Harper's, Daily Telegraph, Gourmet, SF Magazine, Focus, Zyzzyva, etc.), as well as anthologies (Roots and Branches, Istanbul, Should Have Stayed Home. She was one of the two women invited to ontribute to the G8 Summit in Genoa, 'A Window Over the Mediterranean' among writers such as Amos Oz, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Max Gallo, Amin Malouf, and Luis Sepulveda.

She is the author of the non-fiction international bestseller, Harem: The World Behind the Veil, Taking the Waters, and the novels The Palace of Tears and Seven Houses. In all her work, Croutier combines the Eastern tradition of storytelling with her Western literary education, searching the point where East meets the West. Her most recent work Leyla: The Black Tulip is a novel for young readers (10-12 years-old). She lectures frequently on Orientalism and Middle Eastern Women's studies, Harems and Turkey.