Thursday, October 26, 2006
Editors Nominated by Daughters of Ataturk
We were honored to learn this week that Anastasia and I were both nominated for The Daughters of Ataturk "Women of Distinction Award", a title bestowed annually on selected women who have "demonstrated vision, leadership, innovation and professionalism" in"giving their talents to the International Turkish Community".
Hearing this news made Seker Bayrami holiday even more pleasant, especially when coupled with articles about EH appearing in Aksam newspaper on 21 October and in The New Anatolian newpaper's special Bayram edition that ran 23-25 October (read the interview by Irazca Geray here)!
For those unfamiliar with Seker Bayrami, it is the holiday celebrating the end of Ramazan/Ramadan and is one of the most important holidays of the year in Turkey, typically celebrated with family. In my case, that's usually a treat as it means visits to sunny, seaside Fethiye and treks to our family's village of Arpacik on a mountain plateau under Cal Dagi mountain right behind Fethiye, though this year we only got to visit with about 40 of our clan of 70 relatives!
Friday, October 20, 2006
EH a Barnes & Noble Bestseller!
Expat Harem is proud claim #9 in B&N's Top 10 Bestsellers in the category of Middle East-Travel, alongside such heavy-hitters as recent Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk (see what his translator Maureen Freely says about EH), and biblical scholar/nomad Bruce Feiler.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Selling the SeraglioIn their Oct/Nov/Dec issue, UK-based quarterly magazine Mslexia features an article by Anastasia and me. In it, we shared with this women's writing magazine some important lessons we learned in crafting and selling the Expat Harem project. Read the article on our website...
In other UK-related media, the recently launched Guardian Abroad , a new branch of Guardian Unlimited which focuses on expatriate issues, has added the Expat Harem Blog to their list of resources. The print version, the Guardian, is one of UK's leading dailies and sister newspaper of the Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
Rate the Expat Harem blog for the Guardian Abroad's other readers!
Monday, October 09, 2006
Happy Birthday to Us! 
Break out the bubbly! The Dogan Kitap editions of Expat Harem were 1 year old on September 15th!
What a first year we’ve had... EH’s English edition in Turkey is now in its 3rd printing and has remained on Remzi Kitabevi’s national bestseller list for just over 1 consecutive year!! The Turkish edition is in its 2nd printing, as is EH’s North American Seal Press edition, which went into a 2nd printing in April 2006 after just one month on the market! With 7 printings between 2 publishers, we are thrilled with EH’s reception to date.
Inciting Travelers
Apparently the book is even prompting people to buy tickets to Turkey, like Australian Alie Blackwell, former Brisbane librarian, who after reading EH decided she just had to come see this place. Alie has proposed the Brisbane City Council Book Club read Expat Harem...so the whole town can discuss the anthology together. Thanks for meeting with Anastasia while you were in town, Alie!
EH Projects
Fall is swinging into gear with yet more EH projects in development. We are pitching an Expat Harem documentary to American television, and New York-based tour provider Özgün Taşdemir is designing Expat Harem-themed tours to Turkey.
Appearances
We editors have plans underway for more readings throughout Turkey and will appear in Bodrum in November.
Media Roundup
We’ve had a range of media this fall, from personal and travel blogs, to expat portals and national magazines...
In August, Melissa Maples’ reviewed EH on her blog, while on GetJealous public travelogue, Graham logged his visit to Selçuk and his pleasant experience hanging out with EH contributor Catherine Salter Bayar and her husband Abit!
Also in August, Aly Young reviewed EH on the very popular Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding Blog, a world travel site on the BootsnAll Travel Network created by the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.
Here’s what Aly had to say: "The stories clearly show the passion and love that these women have for Turkey and the way the culture has intertwined with their own, through self-discovery in a foreign land... If you're looking at Turkey as a place to visit, live or work, and want an inside look at local culture and lifestyle, this book is highly recommended."
In September, “Ankara’s Fertile Ground”, Nancy Lunsford’s story of pregnancy and prescient village women, was excerpted and featured in Escape Artist, an expatriate online magazine and resource portal with a subscriber list of 350,000. Also in September, Anastasia and I were profiled in Platin, a Turkish national monthly business magazine similar to Forbes.
This October, EH has been extolled as “a must read” by Amanda Poulsen in the current issue of Curve magazine, America's best-selling lesbian magazine with a readership of 200,000 and a circulation of 68,200.
Encyclopedia Entries
Check out Expat Harem-related Wikipedia entries for the book and the editors (Anastasia, Jennifer).
Library Shelf
And lastly, EH continues to be acquired by more and more libraries worldwide, including the national library of the United Kingdom-- the British Library-- and the Library of Women’s Achievements in Istanbul. Here are some of the latest additions:
University/Academic Libraries
-Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA, USA
-Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
-University of California/Davis, Davis, CA, USA
-York University Library, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Public and Private Libraries
-Berkeley Public Library, Berkeley, CA, USA
-The British Library (the national library of the United Kingdom), West Yorkshire, England
-Central Iowa Library Service Area, Ankeny, IA, USA
-Everett Public Library, Everett, WA, USA
-Library of Women's Achievements (Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi), Istanbul, Turkey
-Mosman Library, New South Wales, Australia
-St Charles Public Library, St Charles, IL, USA
-San Mateo Public Library, San Mateo, CA, USA
Break out the bubbly! The Dogan Kitap editions of Expat Harem were 1 year old on September 15th!
What a first year we’ve had... EH’s English edition in Turkey is now in its 3rd printing and has remained on Remzi Kitabevi’s national bestseller list for just over 1 consecutive year!! The Turkish edition is in its 2nd printing, as is EH’s North American Seal Press edition, which went into a 2nd printing in April 2006 after just one month on the market! With 7 printings between 2 publishers, we are thrilled with EH’s reception to date.
Inciting Travelers
Apparently the book is even prompting people to buy tickets to Turkey, like Australian Alie Blackwell, former Brisbane librarian, who after reading EH decided she just had to come see this place. Alie has proposed the Brisbane City Council Book Club read Expat Harem...so the whole town can discuss the anthology together. Thanks for meeting with Anastasia while you were in town, Alie!
EH Projects
Fall is swinging into gear with yet more EH projects in development. We are pitching an Expat Harem documentary to American television, and New York-based tour provider Özgün Taşdemir is designing Expat Harem-themed tours to Turkey.
Appearances
We editors have plans underway for more readings throughout Turkey and will appear in Bodrum in November.
Media RoundupWe’ve had a range of media this fall, from personal and travel blogs, to expat portals and national magazines...
In August, Melissa Maples’ reviewed EH on her blog, while on GetJealous public travelogue, Graham logged his visit to Selçuk and his pleasant experience hanging out with EH contributor Catherine Salter Bayar and her husband Abit!
Also in August, Aly Young reviewed EH on the very popular Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding Blog, a world travel site on the BootsnAll Travel Network created by the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.
Here’s what Aly had to say: "The stories clearly show the passion and love that these women have for Turkey and the way the culture has intertwined with their own, through self-discovery in a foreign land... If you're looking at Turkey as a place to visit, live or work, and want an inside look at local culture and lifestyle, this book is highly recommended."
In September, “Ankara’s Fertile Ground”, Nancy Lunsford’s story of pregnancy and prescient village women, was excerpted and featured in Escape Artist, an expatriate online magazine and resource portal with a subscriber list of 350,000. Also in September, Anastasia and I were profiled in Platin, a Turkish national monthly business magazine similar to Forbes.
This October, EH has been extolled as “a must read” by Amanda Poulsen in the current issue of Curve magazine, America's best-selling lesbian magazine with a readership of 200,000 and a circulation of 68,200.
Encyclopedia Entries
Check out Expat Harem-related Wikipedia entries for the book and the editors (Anastasia, Jennifer).
Library Shelf
And lastly, EH continues to be acquired by more and more libraries worldwide, including the national library of the United Kingdom-- the British Library-- and the Library of Women’s Achievements in Istanbul. Here are some of the latest additions:
University/Academic Libraries
-Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA, USA
-Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
-University of California/Davis, Davis, CA, USA
-York University Library, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Public and Private Libraries
-Berkeley Public Library, Berkeley, CA, USA
-The British Library (the national library of the United Kingdom), West Yorkshire, England
-Central Iowa Library Service Area, Ankeny, IA, USA
-Everett Public Library, Everett, WA, USA
-Library of Women's Achievements (Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi), Istanbul, Turkey
-Mosman Library, New South Wales, Australia
-St Charles Public Library, St Charles, IL, USA
-San Mateo Public Library, San Mateo, CA, USA
