Expat Harem

2009-10-23T16:18:00.000+03:00

expat+HAREM, the global niche

The Expat Harem concept has always meant cultural peers tied together in the virtual realm. Now Anastasia has relaunched the Expat Harem website to embody our concept in today’s multicultural, global existence.

expat+HAREM, the global niche reflects the new social order of personal and universal liminality where common interest and experience defines us far better than geography, nationality or even family.

This site will be a multi-author blog and Expat Harem fans are invited to be a part of it. So we’re calling all global citizens, Turkophiles, intentional travelers and culture & identity adventurers to share your perspectives on the hybrid life. Here's how to become a guest poster.

2009-06-03T21:37:00.004+03:00

Expat Harem Contributor in Award-Winning Anthology

Congratulations to Kathy Hamilton Gundogdu! Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie), featuring Kathy's essay “A Santa Snafu,” was published in May 2009. The book has already been named winner in two categories of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and third place Grand Prize winner in nonfiction overall. The anthology was edited by Suzanne Kamata, novelist, nonfiction author, and owner of the Gaijin Mama Blog.

2009-05-28T09:08:00.003+03:00

Defining Expat Lit, Live on Twitter May 29
Expatriate literature may be stocked in the travel section, but does it deserve a shelf of its own? We think so! Travelers often have the luxury to avoid the very issues of assimilation and identity that dominate the expat psyche. Anastasia will guest host a live chat on the micro-blogging service Twitter to discuss the unique depths expatriate living can bring to expat lit’s combination of outsider-view-from-the-inside and journey of self-realization. All Expat Harem readers are invited to join in, and share their perspectives on this misunderstood genre: Friday, May 29th, 4-5pm EDT.

Visit www.litchat.net for more information. The only requirement is that you have a Twitter account, then use either TweetChat or Twitter search with the term "LitChat" to see the on-going discussion.

2009-03-10T22:32:00.005+02:00

Expat Career Branding
In a two-part interview with Career by Choice, a blog run by expat career coach Megan Fitzgerald in Rome, Anastasia talks about the lessons of Expat Harem in forging her expat writing life. Answering questions about personal branding and career success abroad, Anastasia explains how writing about her life overseas and editing Expat Harem connected her to a worldwide band of her peers, and gave her career and conflicted expat mindset a new cultural context. Click to read part 1 and part 2.

2009-02-28T16:17:00.005+02:00

Gökmen in Expat Roundtable with Turkey’s New Minister to the EU
On Friday, February 27th, Jennifer Gökmen joined thirty expats and five Turks at a dinner with Turkey’s newly appointed Minister to European Union Affairs, Mr. Egemen Bagis, and his wife Beyza (shown in photo). Hosted by businesswoman Mutlu Alkan at the Rahmi Koc Museum’s restaurant Halat, this new community forum rotates groups of professionals from various sectors. The third such event, this was the first to be composed of expatriates.

Among the expatriate opinion leaders participating in the evening’s discussion were foreign correspondents and authors on modern Turkish politics Gareth Jenkins, author of Political Islam in Turkey, and former reporter for The Economist; Nicole Pope, co-author of Turkey Unveiled and former reporter for Le Monde; Dorian Jones of Deutsche Welle Radio, BBC, NPR, and Radio Netherlands; Sarah Rainsford of BBC; and Ariane Bonzon of Arte TV France and TSR/Swiss State TV. Business leaders included top management of foreign multinationals UPS, Cisco Systems, TEB Paribas Bank, as well as the director of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, the director of organic agriculture group Mavi Deniz, a professor of fine arts from Isik University, textile exporters, industrial machinery procuders, and independent consultants.

The open, frank dialogue ranged from amiable to intense: the history of Turkey’s struggle for EU accession, the probability, and the arguable necessity of it. The minister answered comments about the ruling Ak Party’s successes and lapses during the past five years. The evening ended in a consensus about the impressive infrastructure progress Turkey has made in recent years, overhauling labor laws, the tax code, foreign direct investment laws, and soon the commercial code as well as Turkey’s strides towards fully implementing the EU’s Copenhagen Criteria to preserve democratic governance and human rights. The minister’s active solicitation of ongoing outside opinion may be an indicator of increased advancement in this direction.

2009-01-18T13:05:00.004+02:00

Expat Harem Editor Joins Live Discussion on Foreigners' Views of Turkey
On January 10th, Expat Harem editor Jennifer Eaton Gökmen joined three other representatives of Istanbul’s resident expat community on TV8’s live program Iste Biz Boyleyiz with Professor Dr. Haluk Sahin. Giving voice to "What foreigners think of Turkey", Jennifer and the other guests examined topics ranging from the nature of Turkish culture, how urban and rural Turkish society have changed over the past two decades, the opening of the market since 2000, to the rising influence of both westernism *and* Islamism. Other guests included Dutch photojournalist Wilco Van Herpen, star of IZ TV's travel show Wilco'nun Karavanı; Polish star of Turkish TV and film, Tatsyana Tsvikeviç; and Japanese freelance journalist Niinomi Makoto.

2009-01-05T11:17:00.002+02:00

Expat Harem Editors on Twitter
Joining the micro-blogging powerhouse Twitter, with its live stream of 140-characters or less “tweets” about the poster’s daily personal and professional life, Anastasia and Jennifer invite all friends and fans of Expat Harem to follow them.

This easy to master social networking phenomenon promises an “ambient intimacy” with the people whose tweet streams you choose to receive. Let us know you’re out there and we’ll follow you too!
Anastasia: www.twitter.com/Thandelike
Jennifer: www.twitter.com/Expat_Istanbul

2008-11-06T15:15:00.007+02:00

Expat Harem Editor Gives MSNBC Commentary on Obama Election

Following the election of Barack Obama, on November 5th, Jennifer Eaton Gökmen was invited to NTV/MSNBC’s Sade Vatandas program to give her reaction to and assessment of the historical event. Broadcast live (in Turkish), the evening talk show is hosted by Turkey’s most popular late night personality, Okan Bayulgen.

Other panelists that evening included Galip Sukaya, head of the American Business Forum in Turkey; Istem Erdener, translator of Obama’s book Dreams from my Father; and Istanbul-based African-American photographer Frank Payne , with discussion ranging from the emotional impact of the election to America’s economic recovery and the world’s expectations of the 44th president to be.

2008-10-30T14:24:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Contributors Win Award
Three Expat Harem contributors --Katherine Belliel, Amanda Coffin, and Trici Venola—whose writing appears in the Travelers’ Tales anthology Encounters with the Middle East (December 2007) are happy to announce the anthology’s recent awards.

With an introduction by Bruce Feiler (author of Walking the Bible), Encounters has garnered both the 2008 Indie Book Award for Current Events and the 2008 Thomas Travel Journalism Award for Best Travel Book.

The Expat Harem contributors’ stories in this collection include Katherine Belliel’s “Instant Mother, Just Add Tea”; “Repatriation and Regret" by Amanda Coffin; and “Just Under Your Feet” by Tricia Venola.

2008-10-11T22:52:00.006+03:00

Honored Guests of the Guests of Honor at Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurt Book Fair –the largest annual event for the publishing industry—will be focusing on Turkey this year as its country of honor. In turn, Expat Harem will be promoted as well, not only at Dogan Kitap’s stand (the original publisher of both the English and Turkish editions of Expat Harem), but also highlighted at TURSAB’s stand (The Association of Turkish Travel Agencies).

In addition, Expat Harem will be featured at the Ministry of Culture’s main stand for Turkey. Expat Harem is being eagerly considered for the Ministry of Culture’s TEDA Project to promote foreign language editions of the anthology through government underwriting of the production cost for foreign publishing houses. With all eyes on Turkey at FBF this year, Expat Harem may soon be gracing bookshelves in many more languages...

2008-09-22T21:52:00.011+03:00

Multi Media Mania: Expat Harem Popping Up Everywhere

DOCUMENTARIES
Official production on Istanbul-based VTR’s film about the making of Expat Harem will begin in October, destined for the Istanbul European Culture Capital 2010 celebrations. Designed as a 90-minute film in four 23-minute parts, it will be able to be shown both as a full length film and as a television series.

Expat Harem editor Anastasia Ashman has been consulting producers of the History Channel’s production of Underground Cities, and with the help of Expat Harem writer Maureen Basedow recommending local archaeologists and ancient historians as on-camera experts for the Istanbul shoot in October. Expat Harem writer Kathleen Hamilton will appear in the program leading the crew into some of her favorite subterranean spots.

For a Channel 4 (UK) production of a television travelogue based on Lord Byron’s transformative 19th century Grand Tour (with actor Rupert Everett following in his footsteps), Anastasia is helping the filmmakers find what’s “Byronic” about modern day Istanbul, and what expatriate high-life and low-life Everett might like to investigate when he hits the former Constantinople in October.

LIFESTYLE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINES
Expat Harem editor Jennifer Eaton Gökmen’s travel writing advice has been quoted by the award-winning Vagabonding author Rolf Potts in his recent 19 September interview on the Lost Girls World blog , a trendy travel site penned by three twenty-something New Yorkers who abandoned their media jobs to embark on a yearlong, round-the-world journey. In discussing his latest book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer, Potts, who has reported from more than fifty countries for media outlets like National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, and Conde Nast Traveler, lists Jennifer’s travel writing advice in his “seven lessons learned from a decade of interviewing top travel writers”. Among the quotes Potts culled from seven years of interviews, Jennifer’s stands alongside words of wisdom from notable travel scribes Arthur Frommer, Pico Iyer, and Tim Cahill.

Anastasia is the subject of a profile in the October issue of Swissper, the state-of-the-art lifestyle magazine of Swissotel, a member of the Raffles Group of worldwide luxury hotels. She answers questions about her favorite Turkish landscapes, historical sites, pasttimes and cuisine. The magazine is distributed to 15,000 business executives, society figures and opinion leaders as well as Swissotel guests.

Expat Harem editors have been asked to contribute a mini-portrait of city for the March 2009 issue of National Geographic Traveler, and women-savvy suggestions for 2008’s Best Travel Tips at Journeywoman.com.

Anastasia is contributing insider Istanbul tips for an upcoming issue of NBpulse, the high-end publication for discerning international travelers. (See the web version at www.nbpulse.com)

2008-09-13T09:49:00.002+03:00

Expat Harem Editor Jennifer Gökmen Coaches Extreme Sport: Public Speaking
If you ask Jennifer Gökmen, Speech & Debate is an extreme sport. Perhaps it isn’t death-defying, but an estimated 75% of the world’s population fear it...sometimes more than death, according to Wikipedia. The sheer adrenaline rush often gained by standing in front of a crowd and having to express one’s self certainly can make it feel like an extreme sport!

So, who is she coaching? Gökmen is training the middle school and high school students on the Speech & Debate team of Istanbul International Community School. The world’s oldest international school, IICS is a member of the Central and Eastern European Schools Association which oranizes intramural events for the region’s international schools. The first Speech & Debate Tournament will be held in Budapest in November.

Gökmen brings to the team her experience as a former television host on Turkey’s TRT channel and as co-founder of the Istanbul chapter of Toastmaster's International... not to mention her experience as a former high school forensics team member herself!

2008-07-08T14:49:00.003+03:00

Expat Harem Editors on NYC's #1 Late Night Radio Show
Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gökmen appeared for two hours this week on America's nationally syndicated Joey Reynolds Radio Show, the #1-rated late night program out of New York City. The show was recorded at Istanbul's Radyo D studio in the Dogan Media Center and will be broadcast on the WOR network to 100 American markets, reaching more than 5 million listeners from New York to Hawaii. The veteran '60s era talk-radio star Joey Reynolds interviewed Anastasia and Jennifer about life in Turkey and featured Tales from the Expat Harem, which his producer and fellow on-air personality Myra Chanin read and loved. A legend in the talk radio field, Reynolds is often referred to as the pioneerof the irreverent "shock-talk" radio style and has been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

2008-06-29T12:16:00.008+03:00

Expat Harem Editor Anastasia Ashman Cohosts Turkey's First Global Nomad Salon

With all its disparate cultural facets, could Turkey be a model for integration - for today's hybrid identity individuals? On June 26th twenty-five social scientists, businesspeople and cultural thought leaders gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet in the shadow of the Haghia Sophia to try to answer that question when Anastasia Ashman cohosted the country's first Global Nomad Salon.

She partnered with Janera Soerel, the New York-based founder of a series of intellectual dinner parties (see Janera.com, theonline magazine and members-only social network which explores issues of global citizenship).

Expert guests at Thursday's rooftop cocktail and dinner included Neşe Gündoğan (secretary general of the National Turkish Olympic Committee), Şerif Kaynar (country managing director of executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry) and global intercultural trainer Ferhan Alesi, as well as Tara Hopkins, the recipient of an Open Society/Soros Foundation grant to create a civic involvement program at Istanbul's Sabancı University.

The VTR crew directed by veteran documentarian Enis Riza filmed the event as part of its on-going production of an Expat Harem film.

With other local co-hosts, Janera plans upcoming events in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Miami and Buenos Aires, as well as the first Global Nomad Retreat in Tuscany in September.

2008-05-27T14:52:00.010+03:00

Expat Harem’s Experts: Authors, Speakers, and Television Guests
Our knowledgable Expat Harem contributors have once more been called upon to share their expertise on topics Turkish. We applaud their myriad successes!

Sally Green and Susan Fleming Holm Speak at Northwestern University
On April 21st at the Roberta Buffet Center for International and Comparative Studies in Chicago, Sally and Susan presented a discussion on Expat Harem and modern Turkey as part of Northwestern University's BCICS Keyman Modern Turkish Studies series. Plied with questions by an engaged audience afterwards, Sally and Susan plan to develop similar events together for more venues in the future.

Sally Green is an instructor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at Colorado University at Boulder. Susan Fleming Holm is the Dorothy Donald Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Monmouth College.

Kathleen Hamilton Gundogdu Featured on American Public Television
This month on American public television, Rudy Maxa's World aired a travel segment on Istanbul featuring Expat Harem writer and personal shopper Kathleen Hamilton Gundogdu as she revealed the innerworkings of the Grand Bazaar and showed Rudy how to bargain.

Kathleen, a columnist for top English-language national newspaper in Turkey, Today’s Zaman, is also a regular contributor to international periodicals such as London-based Taste Anatolia and Hali magazines.

Jessica Lutz’s Latest Book on Turkey
Congratulations to Jessica Lutz whose book Gezichten van Istanbul, verhalen over een stad tussen twee continenten (Faces of Istanbul: Tales From a City Between Two Continents) was published by Uitgeverij Conserve in the Netherlands this spring. She’s now working on the English translation of this lyrical portrait of the Turkish city which holds her heart.

A veteran journalist for Dutch television and resident of Turkey for nearly two decades, Jessica also shared her perspective on the dark side of the city in the anthology Istanbul Noir, to be released in November. Her first book on Turkey, De Gouden Appel, was published in 2002 by Uitgeverij De Geus.

2008-05-03T12:39:00.006+03:00

EXPAT HAREM ON NBC’S TODAY SHOW

Where in the World is Matt Lauer? is an annual travel series of NBC's Today Show, America's #1 morning network TV program. During Where in the World, for one week Matt Lauer pops up in a different global city each day.

On Day 4 Matt arrived in Istanbul, interviewing Expat Harem editors Anastasia and Jennifer live in front of the Haghia Sofia --and in front of 5.4 million viewers at home in the United States!

The Today Show also featured Tales from the Expat Harem, the only book mentioned on the three hour telecast. View the Expat Harem interview here or below.

2008-04-21T16:08:00.004+03:00

Expat Harem Editors Named Favorite Travel Writers in Travel + Leisure
In the April 2008 Turkish edition of Travel + Leisure magazine, Istanbul-based travel writer Saffet Emre Tonguc shares a list of his favorite writers. Among them are authors and contributors to veteran guidebooks like Lonely Planet and Dorling Kindersley, Frommers and Conde Nast’s Traveler magazine, as well as longtime Istanbul expatriate John Freely – and Expat Harem editors Anastasia and Jennifer.

2008-03-03T20:18:00.004+02:00

Gala Girls: Expat Harem Editors at American Business Forum Event
On February 20th, Expat Harem editors Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Gokmen attended the American Business Forum in Turkey Gala at Hilton Convention Center in Istanbul. Promoting commerce and bilateral trade and investment with Turkey through advocacy, diplomacy, information exchange and networking, ABFT serves as an American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey and represents approximately 60 US firms operating in the country.

Among the 300 government, corporate, and NGO attendees were the US Consul General to Istanbul, Sharon Wiener, and Turkish Transportation Minister, Hilmi Guler, photographed here with Anastasia, Jennifer, and Expat Harem contributor Dena Sukaya (far left). Dena, author of "The Business of the Bazaar", runs the Ottoman Trading Company in Seattle, Washington, and was in town especially for the ABFT Gala as her dynamic husband Galip Sukaya is its Chairman.

Ms. Wiener, posted to Istanbul just six months ago, told us she's a fan of the Expat Harem anthology, having recently read it during a trip to Italy.

2008-02-07T12:09:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Editor Contributes to "Voice of Global Nomads"

Expat Harem editor Anastasia Ashman adds her voice to Janera.com, a new social network and online magazine on global culture and economics which calls itself the Voice of Global Nomads. Named after its founder Janera Soerel, a Caribbean-born polyglot investment banker, the community hosts Global Nomad Salons around the world for young, urban, educated and culturally mixed and uprooted people to discuss the issues of their lives. The magazine’s second edition is now live and features Anastasia’s essay “The Accidental Anthologist in Istanbul” about her experience as a reluctant expatriate who taps into the worldwide network of foreign national women whose lives have been touched by Turkey.

2008-01-23T12:41:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Editors Join EU School Project
On the 22nd and 23rd of January, co-editor Jennifer Eaton Gökmen participated in an online forum discussion between Hisar Educational Foundation School in Istanbul, Turkey and Externat Notre Dame School in Grenoble, France.

This inter-school communication is part of the European Union Comenius Project called eTwinning, which aims to promote communication between European schools. Both schools have been reading excerpts from Expat Harem as an exploration of cultural identity and the negation of stereotypes.

In addition to this online dialogue initiated by teachers John Israel (TR) and Odile Pouchol (FR), both editors will meet with the Turkish and French high schoolers when when Externat Notre Dame visits Hisar Educational Foundation this April and again in October 2008.

2008-01-13T15:57:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Editor Interview to Reach 3.2 Million Americans

In her second Foreign Correspondence appearance, Expat Harem editor Anastasia Ashman was interviewed by Travel Editor John Bordsen for the Charlotte Observer newspaper in North Carolina. She discusses highlights of Turkish travel, and the characteristics of Turkey’s mesmerizing shorelines and azure seas. Owned by the 150-year old McClatchy Company, the United States’ third-largest newspaper company, the Charlotte Observer is just one of 31 newspapers in 15 states across America where the interview will appear.

2007-12-24T13:36:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Contributor Susan Holm is Building Bridges

In a heartwarming chain of events, the Expat Harem anthology brought Susan Holm, the writer of "Conversion in Erzurum", back to the ancient Eastern Turkish city she fell in love with -- and renewed her philanthropic ties to Turkey.

Now a chaired professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Monmouth College, in 1966-68 Sue was a Peace Corps volunteer in Erzurum, teaching English at Atatürk University. She returned to Turkey in 1974-75, living in Ankara and Northern Cyprus.

Thirty-one years later, while giving an Expat Harem reading in North Carolina in March 2006, she met Emin Pamucak and Ismail Arslan of the Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF), a charitable organization supporting disadvantaged segments of Turkish society. At their invitation, Sue returned to Erzurum and Hasankale to tour a school that BTF helps. She also visited her former workplace Atatürk University to visit physicians who participate in a cleft palate surgery project funded by BTF. She met one of the families whose young son had benefitted from the surgery.

Sue joined forces with BTF to participate in a playschool project with her circle of friends. Recently completed, the Çiçek Playschool Playground in Mamak, Ankara provides a safe environment for toddlers of socio-economically struggling women.

Ellerine sağlık, Sue!

2007-12-11T22:44:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem in the Lap of Luxury
Tales from the Expat Harem is now a room gift in the 10 opulent suites at Les Ottomans Hotel, a lavishly refurbished 1790 waterfront mansion in Istanbul.

Being gifted to Les Ottomans' guests is a fortuitous first for our anthology; the hotel is known for its A-list clientele of fashion, music, and film celebrities like recent guests, designer Donna Karan and actor Kevin Costner.

2007-11-20T20:16:00.000+02:00

Expat Harem Contributors Strike Again!
Congratulations to three Expat Harem writers, whose travel tales appear in freshly released anthologies from Travelers’ Tales…

In November’s Encounters with the Middle East: True Stories of People and Culture that Help You Understand the Region, edited by Nesreen Khashan and Jim Bowman, Katherine Belliel’s funny story about how a bus trip from Bursa brings out her mothering instinct --“Instant Mother, Just Add Tea” -- appears, as does “Just Under Your Feet” by Tricia Venola, about a chunk of the fourth-century Magnaura Palace under a carpet shop in Istanbul's Sultanahmet neighborhood.

Kathleen Hamilton Gundogdu’s “Measuring Cups” about a rite of passage in Mexico City appears in A Woman's World Again: True Stories of World Travel, edited by Marybeth Bond, published in October.

2007-10-29T10:39:00.000+02:00

A New Look for Expat Harem's 4th Printing in Turkey
To celebrate the 4th printing of the English edition of Tales from the Expat Harem published in Turkey by Dogan Kitap, a new cover was designed noting the anthology's status as a #1 international bestseller, its foreword by controversial Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, and its recommendations by Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, the Daily Telegraph, and the International Herald Tribune.

The 4th edition is hot off the presses this week and has begun hitting the stores.

Thanks to New York photographer Andrea Bucci for the image of the Ortakoy mosque featured on the sunny cover!

For more news and events from the Expat Harem, you can sign up for automatic updates on our blog homepage.

2007-09-07T19:28:00.000+03:00

Expat Harem Shares Must-Read List with another Nobel Laureate
Last time was August 2007, when National Geographic Traveler listed Expat Harem as one of its four recommended reads for Istanbul visitors, alongside two titles from Turkey’s Nobel Prize winner for literature, Orhan Pamuk. We are honored this time for Expat Harem to be grouped with the memoir of Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and activist--and first Muslim woman ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Tales from the Expat Harem and Iran Awakening are required reading for the Fall 2007 History of the Modern Middle East course at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Highly recommended by the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Expat Harem is used in American and Canadian graduate, university, secondary and primary school courses ranging from art to history, Turkish language to travel writing.

2007-08-23T19:30:00.000+03:00

5 Star Istanbul Hotel Recommends Expat Harem
In this weekend’s guest newsletter, Swissôtel: The Bosphorus Istanbul urges its international clientele not to miss Tales from the Expat Harem, or its Turkish version Turkce Sevmek.

Situated on a wooded hilltop in Besiktas, the 600-room luxury hotel's spacious grounds were once the gardens of the Dolmabahce Palace, the last residence of the Ottoman Sultans....

2007-08-14T13:07:00.000+03:00

Editors Write About Istanbul for National Geographic Traveler

Expat Harem editors Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gökmen were recently honored to be chosen by National Geographic Traveler to contribute a comprehensive article about Istanbul.

Published in seven languages, National Geographic Traveler reaches more readers (6.8 million) and more travelers (3.9 million) than any other travel magazine in the world. The publication is part of the renowned National Geographic Society. Established in 1888, NGS is one of the world's largest not-for-profit educational and scientific organizations.

The first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was born in Istanbul just a few miles from where the Expat Harem editors currently reside.

2007-07-27T19:35:00.000+03:00

Expat Harem's New Intern: Tunc Erdem

Photographed here with Expat Harem Co-Editor Anastasia Ashman is the newest member of our team. Please meet our industrious new intern, Tunc Erdem, who just finished his junior year at Izmir University of Economics. Studying Public Relations & Advertising, Tunc plans to run his own PR agency one day. In the true spirit of a guerrilla marketer, before he had even relocated to Istanbul for the summer, Tunc waded knee-deep into the marketing of Expat Harem's publishing, film, television, tourism and other platforms.

When he's not studying in one of his five languages (English, German, Italian, Spanish, and of course Turkish), you might find him pursuing his photography, participating in marketing workshops, or even designing ad campaigns! We have our fingers crossed for Tunc and his ad campaign submission to media magnate Aydin Dogan's 19th Annual Competition for Young Communications Majors.

After celebrating his 21st birthday this weekend (happy birthday, Tunc!), one of his next assignments will be to join EH's other Co-Editor Jennifer Gokmen for the taping of her new Turkish television show, "Bir Yar Gelir Bizlere" (details below in previous post). Welcome to the team, Tunc!

2007-07-19T15:37:00.000+03:00

Gokmen to Host Turkish Television Series

Expat Harem editor Jennifer Eaton Gökmen will begin taping this month for a series on Turkey's state television station TRT International, one of Turkish Radio and Television Corporation's seven channels.

The series, Bir Yar Gelir Bizlere (a title taken from a Turkish folk song), focuses on expatriation issues of foreigners who have married into Turkish culture. The show, conducted in Turkish, is now in its second season.

Gökmen will join co-host Hakan Urgancı, presenter of 2007's Eurovision Song Contest in Turkey and host of other TRT shows. Bir Yar Gelir Bizlere can be viewed on Sundays at 17:00 Turkish time (EEST, or GMT+2) on TRT International or via TRT's website.

2007-07-16T13:38:00.001+03:00

“Expat Harem's Editors are Alexa de Tocquevilles”

Latest praise for Expat Harem comes this time from the Middle East. Muhammad Yusuf recently reviewed the book for THE GULF TODAY newspaper, a national English-language daily based in the United Arab Emirates and popular with the country’s large expatriate population.

Referencing 19th century French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, Dubai-based Yusuf lauds Expat Harem’s cultural analysis: “A rip-roarer of a guide to understanding Eastern and Western social values. It is a travelogue of lessons...an invaluable companion for the person who is concerned with the battle between the West and East...precious insights...an amazingly useful reverie on the relationship between the sexes... For those willing to look beyond Turkey and its foreign women expats, it also has a larger lesson. It is one of accommodation between the Eastern and Western cultures.”

2007-07-05T22:23:00.000+03:00

Now You Can Make The “Expat Harem Martini”!

How many books do you own with their own drink named after it? Mixing your own Expat Harem Martini is a good way to spice up your book club gathering, enhance your summer soirees, or even add to an indulgent reading experience!

Sip the crisp and spicy concoction of vodka, green apple juice, lime, cucumber, and ginger beer created by international sommelier and bartender Joe McCanta (featured in July's Harper's Bazaar and FHM, August's Marie Claire).

McCanta, who is currently the cutting-edge mixologist at Saf Ecobistro & Martini Bar, debuted our organic cocktail in March and has kindly shared his delicious recipe, which you can now find on the Lifestyles page of the official Expat Harem website.

McCanta --a veteran of the East Village’s organic wine & martini bar Counter (yes, the one featured in the Sex in the City episode 76 where Sam meets Smith!)—created this literary libation after reading our locally-grown, internationally bestselling anthology. After launching the cocktail at a crowded event in Istanbul’s bohemian district, the Expat Harem Martini has now spread to some of Istanbul’s most sumptuous addresses (watch this space for more news or register for automatic updates). With Saf branches also opening in Geneva, Stockholm, London and Munich, the Expat Harem’s intoxicating effect will continue to spread!

2007-06-15T16:41:00.000+03:00

Seattle NGO Recommends EH for its Global Classroom

In its Global Classroom two part lecture series Turkish Culture and Society in March and April this year, the World Affairs Council of Seattle listed Expat Harem in its selected Turkish literature resources for teachers. The event was part of a professional development training to inform educators about world regions, cultures, and issues; provide access to people from the regions being discussed; and disseminate up-to-date curriculum that supports bringing these ideas into the classroom.

We were honored to share this list with Turkey's famed poet Nazim Hikmet, celebrated novelist Elif Shafak, award-winning author Louis de Bernieres and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. We look forward to Expat Harem becoming part of (even more) school curricula.

The non-profit, non-partisan World Affairs Council is the leading foreign affairs forum in the Pacific Northwest. Members of the Council include schools, public institutions, businesses, and individuals, who want first hand information on global issues and direct participation in international exchange. Winner of the 2000 KCTS Golden Apple Award, the Global Classroom program reaches thousands of students through speaker programs and resources provided to Washington teachers.

2007-06-03T23:45:00.001+03:00

Editor Appears on Top Turkish Talk Show

Jennifer was in notable company Thursday, 31 May, as the only female and only foreigner on that night's panel of "Biri Bana Anlatsin", a two hour live prime time talk show/panel discussion hosted by two of Turkey's top comedians/presenters, Beyazit (Beyaz) Ozturk and Kadir Copdemir.

In addition to EH Editor Jennifer, other guests that evening included the Mayor of Beyoglu (the center of Istanbul's downtown) Ahmet Misbah Demirca n, noted architect Ugur Tanyeli, night club entrepreneur İzzet Çapa, renowned writers Selim Ileri and Murat Belge, and writer/poet/journalist/tv presenter Sunay Akin.

The evening's topic was ISTANBUL, with (somewhat heated) discussions of the megacity's growing infrastructure problems, the need to preserve its cultural heritage, and reminiscence of "Old Istanbul".

2007-06-01T23:39:00.000+03:00

Editors Featured on Rolf Potts' Vagabonding

Anastasia and Jennifer are featured in Rolf Potts' June 2007 installment of his interview series with top travel writers, among them National Book Award winners and Pulitzer Prize winners.

A popular world travel site on the BootsnAll Travel Network , the Vagabonding site was created by the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

2007-05-31T23:26:00.000+03:00

EH Recommended by Lonely Planet Turkey

Lonely Planet, the largest independently-owned travel guidebook publisher in the world, endorses EH for travelers to Turkey. In the 2007 edition of Lonely Planet Turkey, Expat Harem is recommended (on page 55) alongside Turkey's top novelists Yasar Kemal, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, and Elif Shafak. Verity Campbell calls EH "worth seeking out...an excellent holiday read."

2007-05-28T09:59:00.000+03:00

Academic Journal Raves EH "Expertly Written and Edited"

The Spring 2007 issue of the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies hails Expat Harem as "a supremely feminine book". Reviewer Ann Evans Larimore (Professor Emerita of geography and women's studies at University of Michigan) writes, "It can be dipped into at any point, but there is a rhythm and progression to the presentation of these episodes, so that reading them in sequence is not only aesthetically pleasing but instructive."

Larimore goes on to note, “They have succeeded amazingly well in realizing their conceptualization of this anthology... Written with a sharp eye for telling small details, these stories can provide many ethnographic insights... It’s a great (and instructive) read! Don’t miss it.”

JMEWS is the official publication of the Association of Middle East Women's Studies--a cutting edge international and multidisciplinary organization.

2007-05-27T21:28:00.000+03:00

Media Roundup

This month has seen Expat Harem and its editors in a number of Turkish and international media venues:

Media Bistro's GalleyCat Blog, an industry website for publishing and media professionals,

covered the March 29th launch of the Expat Harem Martini at Saf (10 April 2007).

On 22 April 2007 Jennifer and her husband were the subjects of a 30 minute segment "Bir Yar Gelir Bizlere" presented by Elizabeth Ayten Berent on Turkey's state-owned television station TRT International.

The #1 website for expatriate women, ExpatWomen.com, will featured an interview with the editors in their June issue. Visit their blog here.

The Istanbul Convention and Visitors' Bureau featured the editors in their May issue of the "Colors of Turkey" monthly bulletin in "Expatriate Women Explain Turkey To The World" penned by one of Turkey's top travel writers, Saffet Emre Tonguç.

2007-05-18T10:35:00.000+03:00

VisualThesaurus Book Reviews by EH Editor

Expat Harem editor Anastasia Ashman contributes the “Dog Eared: Books We Love” column this week at VisualThesaurus.com, the online tool for writers, students and teachers of writing, and marketing communications professionals worldwide. Anastasia recaps four books about the cultural wisdom historically pooling at the intersection of women and travel:

UNSUITABLE FOR LADIES: An Anthology of Women Travellers, selected by Jane Robinson
VEILED HALF-TRUTHS: Western Travellers’ Perceptions of Middle Eastern Women, selected and annotated by Judy Mabro
ADVENTUROUS WOMEN IN SOUTH EAST ASIA: Six Lives, edited by John Gullick
DREAMING OF EAST: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient, by Barbara Hodgson

2007-05-15T13:22:00.000+03:00

Cincinnati Enquirer calls EH "Engrossing"

LitChick book reviewer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Sara Pearce, reviews the Expat Harem tale of the city's resident Maureen Basedow. Maureen, an archaeologist, writes about her experience excavating at Troy.

2007-05-11T10:35:00.000+03:00

International Women From Munich Come For EH Presentation

This week the Expat Harem editors were pleased to speak about expat acculturation issues before 27 members of the Ladies’ International Association, a Munich-based expatriate organization visiting Istanbul. We were honored to receive the group's request for a presentation some months ago when they began planning their Turkish trip.

The colorful audience hailed from thirteen nations including the U.S., Venezuela, Iran, Holland, Australia and Greece. Leading the sight-seeing tour was the suitably multicultural Vice President of the club Bilge Aksu-Doerr -- a Turkish and British citizen married to a German! When Bilge was an MBA candidate at Oxford University, her dissertation involved cultural adjustment for expatriates and their families.

2007-05-07T16:36:00.000+03:00

Editor's Tale in Perceptive Travel
Jennifer’s latest travel piece, In the Offering: Two Sides of a Turkish Sacrifice, appears in the May/June edition of Perceptive Travel, the award-winning online magazine for travelers with open minds and open senses.

In a tale set against the backdrop of southern Turkey’s mountains, the Expat Harem editor ponders the meaning of sacrifice as she considers the rural Anatolian custom of animal offerings to give thanks for one’s good fortune, and the concessions we choose to make for the people we love.

2007-04-26T15:51:00.000+03:00

EH Contributor in America's 'Newspaper of Record'
The New York Times travel section recently highlighted the Turkic and Ottoman cooking classes of Expat Harem writer Eveline Zoutendijk, the Dutch Cordon Bleu chef and proprietress of the Sarnic Hotel in the historic Sultanahmet district.

Eveline, whose EH tale "The Painting or the Boy" recounts an art historical mystery at the hotel, tells us she will soon be writing a book about her adventures running her Istanbul establishment -- we can't wait to read it!

2007-04-01T00:04:00.000+03:00

A New Literary Libation: Expat Harem Martini

Thursday, March 29th in the bohemian district of Istanbul, Joe McCanta, the cutting-edge mixologist at Saf Ecobistro & Martini Bar, debuted his newest organic cocktail: The Expat Harem Martini.

McCanta --a veteran of the East Village’s organic wine & martini bar Counter—created this literary libation after reading our locally-grown, internationally bestselling anthology. Sipping the crisp and spicy concoction (vodka, cucumber, ginger beer and green apple juice) along with the collection’s editors and writers Katherine Belliel, Eveline Zoutendijk and Trici Venola were 50 literary fans from eight countries and four continents. With Saf branches opening in Geneva, Stockholm, London and Munich, it’s easy to see how the Expat Harem’s intoxicating effect will continue to spread!

2007-03-19T20:55:00.000+02:00

Launching Istanbul's Freshest Cocktail: The EXPAT HAREM Martini

Join us for the unveiling of the martini that Saf Organic Bistro & Martini Bar has named after our anthology! Help us christen the new Expat Harem Martini by clinking glasses with EH writers and creators at Saf on Thursday, 29 March from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Designed by the extraordinary organic mixologist Joe McCanta, the Expat Harem Martini is a sparkling and spicy potion of vodka, cucumber, Saf’s house-made ginger beer, and fresh green apple juice.

Vivacious appetizers by Saf’s cutting-edge raw chefs will be compliments of the house and the EH martini on special, just for us.

2007-03-11T14:03:00.000+02:00

Spotlight on EH Contributors

Rhonda Vander Sluis
We were pleased to learn that Islamica magazine, a glossy international quarterly aimed at broadening perspectives on Islam, featured an excerpt of Rhonda's Expat Harem story Failed Missionary in their Issue 17 (September 2006). The magazine is distributed in 20 countries, with a concentration on US, UK, and European audiences.

Claire Uhr
Another contributor, Claire Uhr, was also recently honored in February as the guest speaker at the Moreton Club, a women’s society, in Brisbane, Australia. The dinner in honor of Expat Harem included a Turkish menu for its 70 guests as well as a presentation by Claire, in which she shared tales of her Anatolian adventures. Claire tells us the crowd, many of whom had visited Turkey, embraced the theme of the book and were eager to get their hands on a copy to help them relive their fond memories of the country.

Susan Fleming Holm
As this book was compiled “virtually” via submissions to our email inboxes, we editors have yet to meet all our fantastic contributors face to face. Through our Turkey and US tours we have made personal acquaintance with quite a few of them, and were thrilled this week to finally meet Susan Fleming Holm in Istanbul. Susan, the Dorothy Donald Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Monmouth College, is in country for a one month research visit to various cities and towns to collect stories from Turkish women and/or expatriate women who have lived in Turkey for extended periods. Her aim is to learn how and why their lives have changed over the past forty years.

2007-03-10T17:28:00.000+02:00

The Ides of March...

...seem like they will turn out to be anything but "idle". ; )

Contributor Katherine Belliel (Haze) joined editor Jennifer Eaton Gökmen for a live interview on the 6:00pm news on channel 24 Haber the evening of 8 March (International Women's Day). Interviewed by Fuat Kozluklu, the two were asked to comment not only on Expat Harem, but on how their lives have been impacted by living in Istanbul, as well as the conditions for Turkish women in modern Turkey.

2007-03-08T17:55:00.000+02:00

In Like a Lion

Along with its typical blustery winds, March is heralding yet more media coverage. A feature profile of the Expat Harem editors graces this month's issue of AnthologiesOnline, a premier online resource connecting writers with anthology editors.

Traffic on the Expat Harem website has long been steadily increasing, now averaging 1400 visitors/month for the past 6 months. Expatharem.com has been visited by 17,000 people from 139 countries in 6 continents. The top 10 visiting countries to date are: US, Turkey, UK, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, France, Australia, Italy, and India.

2007-03-05T23:18:00.000+02:00

Monday Night Special
Monday night at 19:45, watch the Expat Harem editors online on Turkish national tv station TRT2's new arts & culture program RENGAHENK. Interviewed by Evren Yigit, author of Kipat, the editors give an update of Expat Harem's activities as well as its impact on Turkey's image abroad.

2007-03-02T11:20:00.000+02:00

Perceptive Travel: Around the World with EH Editor's Book Reviews

Before you pack your bags for Mexico, the Middle East, or (if you're that brave) the deepest forests of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, read Anastasia Ashman's latest book reviews on Perceptive Travel. In the March/April 2007 issue, she covers Mexico, A Love Story, edited by Camille Cusumano; Maliha Masood's Zaatar Days, Henna Nights; and Sabine Kuegler's Jungle Child.

Perceptive Travel, a site which presents alternative travel writing by book authors, was recently distinguished for its content by the North American Travel Journalists Association, a professional organization of travel writers, photographers, and editors.

2007-01-31T19:52:00.000+02:00

UK's Topselling Newspaper Loves EH!

The UK's largest newspaper, the Daily Telegraph (with an average daily circulation of 901,000), raves about Expat Harem in a review by Jo Parfitt: "This is not just another anthology by expat wives who long to get in print. This is a wonderful book; beautifully written, thought-provoking and inspiring. Every essay is spot on, literary and insightful. Grouped into sections, they cover everything from relationships with Turks and non-Turks to the food, the music, the humour and the passion. Be ready to book a flight to Istanbul afterwards."

2007-01-25T18:50:00.000+02:00

EH is Seattle #3 Bestseller for 2006!

Expat Harem has been named the #3 best selling paperback for all of 2006 at Seattle's renowned travel bookstore Wide World Books, where the editors and two contributors, Dena Sukaya and Wendy Fox, gave a reading in May. EH shares a space on the list with authors Bill Bryson (#5 with A Short History of Nearly Everything ) and Jared Diamond (#9 with Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed).

2007-01-15T19:40:00.000+02:00

EH a UK National Bestseller!

Expat Harem is appearing on national bestseller lists in the United Kingdom, making it to #13 this week in Amazon UK's Womens' Studies category, and in the top 30 bestselling books about Turkey at Waterstone's, a premium bookseller franchise.

The anthology's neighbors on these lists include feminist scholars like Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Women Who Run with the Wolves) and Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran) as well as political historian Bernard Lewis (The Emergence of Modern Turkey) and the BBC's former Istanbul correspondent Chris Morris (The New Turkey: Quiet Revolution on the Edge of Europe).

2006-12-23T18:09:00.000+02:00

International Herald Tribune Recommends EH

In its December 13th list of the top 4 books on Turkish culture, IHT includes Tales from the Expat Harem along with works by Elif Shafak, Stephen Kinzer, and Jeremy Seal.

IHT, part of The New York Times Company, has a circulation of more than 240,000 and has been based in Paris since its founding in 1887. Printed at 33 different sites worldwide, it is sold in more than 180 countries.

2006-12-18T10:50:00.000+02:00

The East-West, Past-Present Continuum

This week we had drinks with Expat Harem friend and fan Dr. Reina Lewis, the new Centenary Professor of Fashion Studies at London College of Fashion (and the author of Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem). Reina was in Istanbul to speak at the International Orientalism Symposium held in memory of the father of Orientalist theory, Edward Said.

Reina was one of our earliest supporters and expert reviewers. Now we are collaborating with her on projects to illustrate the historical and contemporary significance of foreign female views of the Near East. Along with her colleague Dr. Teresa Heffernan of Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada, Reina is the editor of Cultures in Dialogue, a book series which resurrects antique writings about Turkish life by Ottoman, British and American women and refreshes them with contemporary academic analysis.

2006-12-11T21:49:00.000+02:00

EH Waxes Intimate in Guardian Abroad
The Guardian, one of UK's leading dailies and sister newspaper of the Observer (the world's oldest Sunday newspaper), has newly launched an online branch specifically geared for expats called Guardian Abroad. Aside from country reviews, legal information, and expert advice, the site offers expat experience features in its Diaries section.

Enter: EH contributor Erica Kaya, whose intimate, irreverent story is currently excerpted on the site.

"Waxing Feminine" will be featured in Guardian Abroad's Diaries in 3 installments over the next few weeks. Learn what happens to a Tennessee tomboy who wrongly equates primping with promiscuity... and gets her comeuppance.

2006-11-29T21:57:00.000+02:00

Editors Presented to
Her Royal Highness
Princess Michael of Kent

Descended from Catherine DeMedici and Diane de Poitiers, Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent was born in Bohemia and descends from ancient European lineage on both sides of her Family. She is the wife of Prince Michael of Kent, grandson of King George V and the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. She is the author of three bestselling historical books, including The Serpent and the Moon which was awarded Le Prix Histoire in 2005.

Meeting Her Royal Highness was the result of Expat Harem’s US book tour sponsor, Demet Sabancı Çetindoğan, gifting our anthology to the Princess at Kensington Palace earlier this month. The next day, the Princess, apparently quite taken with the book, asked Demet Hanım to arrange for us to meet during her visit to Istanbul!

It was an intimate dinner for six at Demet Hanım’s magnificent home, the Zarif Mustafa Paşa Yalı, a 19th century Ottoman mansion opposite the Rumeli Hisar fortress. Once owned by the coffee magnate of Sultan Mahmut II, the Bosphorus mansion, built on the ruins of a Byzantine monastery, is said to still contain its sacred water source, or ayazma, in the garden.

Coming fresh off his well-received show at September’s New York Fashion Week was the Vienna-based world-class international fashion designer Atıl Kutoğlu, loved for his Ottoman-inspired fabrics and cuts, utilizing miniatures and calligraphy on lustrous materials like silks, leather, and velvet.

Hosting Her Royal Highness in her nearby home and joining us at dinner was Turkey’s first lady of the arts and patroness of Turkish culture, Çiğdem Simavi. Istanbul representative for Christie’s auction house, Çiğdem Hanım is also the founder and president of KÜSAV, the Foundation for Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage. From 30 November- 3 December, along with the EKAV Foundation, KÜSAV will hold an exhibit of jewelry design at EKAV Vakıf Sanat Merkezi in Zincirlikuyu, Istanbul.

Demet Hanım, one of Turkey’s leading businesswomen, is the proud new owner of the television channel FashionTV Turkey and aims to create an annual Fashion Week Istanbul, to join New York, Paris, and Milan! Demet Hanım has also recently founded a research and development facility in Rize for the advancement of stem cell research in Turkey.

Surrounded by such enchanting dining companions, basking in the mesmerizing majesty of the Princess --it was a fairy tale evening we won’t soon forget!

2006-11-15T22:06:00.000+02:00

Designing Women: EH Editors Speak at Dutch Ambassador’s Residence

The capital city of Ankara provided a metaphoric backdrop to Monday’s presentation at the residence of the Ambassador of the Royal Netherlands, at the gracious invitation of Betsy Udink, journalist, author, and spouse of Ambassador Marcel Kurpershoek.

Ankara’s contrasts of new architecture with old seemed to mirror the nation’s paradoxes, a topic which courses through Expat Harem and our presentations...We stepped off the plane at Esenboğa airport into its recently opened terminals-- graceful sweeps of glass, metal, and granite; then on the ride downtown we passed under ultramodern asymmetric suspension bridges for pedestrians. Soon came Ulus, the historic section of the city, where century-old Ottoman bank buildings boasted flat eaves and pointed-arch windows, while on the highest hill beyond that, the ancient castle of Ankara with its Roman-era walls stood watch over the city of 5 million.

In the heart of the city, the Ambassadorial residence was an adroit marriage of modern and Ottoman. Designed in the 1980s by Uğur Eken, the home synthesizes Selcuk-influenced black and white geometrics with stylized lines of contemporary Dutch design, and its central atrium, where we made our presentation, mimicked the floor plan of an Ottoman house.

The invitation to speak was an honor made even more special by our hostess’ credentials as a journalist and author of Allah & Eva (2006). She has spent more than 30 years living in Islamic countries. Betsy said she “enjoyed tremendously” the anthology and asked us to elaborate on the editing process. She also confided that when she was first posted to Ankara she received numerous gifts of Expat Harem copies and has been happily regifting them!!

The crowd of 25 were drawn from members of the Dutch-speaking community like Danielle Cath and Alette Akgün, as well as staff of several foreign missions like Irit Roman, from the Embassy of Israel and Müjde Erkenez, who works at the Belgian Embassy. The Turkish media joined as well, represented by producer İrade hanım from the national television station TRT, and her announcer Elizabeth Ayten Berent, a native Texan who has lived in Turkey for 41 years. It was good to see again Arzu Özyol, the president of the Business and Professional Women Club of Ankara, who hosted Jennifer at the club’s opening last winter, and to meet Wendy Serter, a Dutch woman who heads an informal club of foreign wives in Ankara. We were also thrilled to connect with Füsun Ağusman, a teacher at the U.S. Department of Defense School who lived in Holland for 17 years and whose daughter Lale in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Amsterdam is coordinating the TURKEY NOW international relations program scheduled for December.

2006-11-10T15:48:00.000+02:00

Editors Win Daughters of Atatürk “Woman of Distinction” Award

Especially on this day of remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (revered founder of Turkey’s Republic), Anastasia and I are thrilled to have been honored amid a group of accomplished women from four nations in this year's Daughters of Atatürk "Women of Distinction Award"-- among them leaders of commerce, activists and scholars and founders of humanitarian programs, all bringing their view of Turks and Turkey to the world.

Our fellow 2006 Woman of Distinction honorees include the chairwoman of Sabancı Holding, Güler Sabancı, named one the 30 most powerful women in Europe by the Wall Street Journal; British historian and author of Osman’s Dream, Caroline Finkel; and Leslie Peirce, professor of Ottoman and Middle Eastern history at New York University and author of The Imperial Harem.

(Atatürk pictured above with Turkey's first female aviator, Sabiha Gökçen).

2006-11-10T15:44:00.000+02:00

November Begins with Media Frenzy

Following our interview in Bodrum with Gökmen Yücel, his resulting article for one of Turkey’s leading news agencies, Anadolu Ajansi, was published in 12 Turkish newspapers (as “breaking news” on two newspapers’ websites), was read on radio stations like Moral FM, and led to an interview that day with the state television station TRT which aired on TRT2 news on 7 November.

This is the first time Expat Harem has vied for so much headline space with people like Turkey’s prime minister Tayyıp Erdoğan (in 4 papers) and Saddam Hussein (3 papers)...and in 3 other papers with David and Victoria Beckham.

2006-11-05T22:04:00.001+02:00

“Bodrum, Bodrum”

That famous song by Turkish trio MFÖ has always romanticized my vision of Bodrum, a resort town on the craggy Aegean shores of western Turkey. With a medieval Crusader castle dominating its harbor, the picturesque town of whitewashed houses certainly lived up to my expectations when Anastasia and I arrived this weekend. We were invited to give a presentation at the Marina Yacht Club for the 7th Annual Ladies’ Lunch, organized by and for the local expat population. The area has about 5,000 foreigners in residence.

Dubbed “the next St. Tropez” by the New York Times, Bodrum may be a summertime hotspot for Turkish and international celebrities and the paparazzi who love them, but its bold-faced history reaches back a millennium and a half. Founded as Halicarnassus by the Dorians in 450BC and ruled by Persians, Macedonians, and other renowned civilizations, Bodrum’s ancient treasures are still being unearthed-- often unwittingly during the construction of new houses, says Chris Drum Berkaya of the local English language newspaper The Bodrum Observer, whose archaeologist husband is often called out when an antiquity is found.

Anastasia, fortunate enough to spend most of summer in Bodrum, gave me a tour of the place. Though to a Michigan girl like me November means dreary cold, the town’s citrus trees were heavy with fruit, and the quince, olives, and pomegranates were ready to harvest. Bright bougainvillea blooms, jasmine bowers, and other flowers still radiated colorful halos around the houses. Hard to believe it was snowing back home in Istanbul!

Despite heavy thunderstorms early that morning, 120 women streamed into the event as rain and clouds gave way to sunshine. During the Buck Finns cocktail hour on the veranda, Anastasia and I signed books until they sold out. We were thrilled to meet so many of Bodrum’s energetic and enterprising foreign women. Among them were event organizers Jane Baxter, Christine Davies, Leslie Joy Rhoades, and Priscilla Windsor Brown, whose voluminous rolodexes played a part in the inception of this annual event; Dina Street of Zephyria Yachting; chef Angie Mitchell, whose book Secrets Of The Turkish Kitchen has been known to save cross-cultural marriages; Victoria Boz, an adventurous New Zealander; translator Antonella Culasso who claims to be “the only Italian in Bodrum!”; various longtimers like Nikki, who’s been in Turkey 17 years, our good friend from Istanbul, real estate agent Robi Olson (11 yrs), and Julie Aras (16 yrs) who finds Turks everywhere, including a McDonald’s in England!; then there was fiesty Lucy Nazim, a Turkish Cypriot/British repat, who is following a path in neuro-linguistic programming; Duygu Nayir, the owner of seafront cafe Kırmızı; German yoga instructor and writer Monika Munzinger; one of the four Gillians present was inspired to begin writing the book she knows she has in her; and mercurial New York animal behaviorist Rosemary Tramantano is sure to inspire someone else to write a book about her! We met these ladies and so many others. We were thrilled to speak to such an enthusiastic crowd and look forward to reading their stories when we begin the second edition of Expat Harem.

At the marina mall we stopped in at Iki A Books, where a very friendly Ismail Bey immediately ordered the English and Turkish editions of our books. Afterwards, we strolled down what’s known as Barlar Sokağı to Harmony Books, who are pleased to take special orders for the anthology.

Thanks again to Gül Kaynak, manager at The LifeCo Bodrum Detox Center in Göltürkbükü, which generously provided our serene accommodations this weekend. At the purification spa set amidst mandarin orange groves, we took full advantage of the facilities –a hamam, an infra-red sauna, a steam bath and an invigorating yoga class on Saturday morning with Melek hanım! We refreshed with wheatgrass and orchard-fresh drinks at the juice bar.

We had a media lunch on the bay with the Bodrum Observer’s Chris Drum Berkaya, and Gökmen Yücel from the local Bodrum Yarım Ada newspaper and the national news agency Anadolu Ajansı. Our interview appeared today as breaking news on the front pages of Milliyet and Hurriyet national newspapers! It was certainly the first time we have ever shared headline space with Saddam Hussein!

2006-10-26T16:26:00.000+03:00

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!

2006-10-20T11:59:00.000+03:00

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.

2006-10-10T21:07:00.000+03:00

Selling the Seraglio

In 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!

2006-10-09T12:23:00.000+03:00

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

2006-08-22T16:02:00.000+03:00

Expat Harem at more than 100 Libraries Worldwide

Expat Harem has been steadily making its way into libraries worldwide, from the American Library of Congress to the US Air Force Base at Incirlik, Turkey, to a university in Merseburg, Germany, and public libraries in Thames, New Zealand, we’re happy to see that the word is getting out!

Here is the current list of university and academic libraries, as well as public and private libraries now stocking EH:

University/Academic Libraries
-American University, Washington, DC, USA
-Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
-California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA, USA
-Central College, Pella, IA, USA
-Claremont College, The Claremont, CA, USA
-Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
-Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
-Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
-Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
-George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
-George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
-Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA
-Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, USA
-Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
-Istanbul International Community School, Istanbul, Turkey
-Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
-Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
-Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
-Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA
-McMaster University, Hamilton, ON,Canada
-Michigan State University, E Lansing, MI, USA
-Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
-Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL, USA
-Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
-Purdue University, W Lafayette, IN, USA
-Rice University, Fondren Library, Houston, TX, USA
-Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
-San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA
-Southern Methodist University, Central Dallas, TX, USA
-T.C. Anadolu Üniversitesi, Eskişehir, Turkey
-Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
-Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN, USA
-Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
-University of California/Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
-University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
-University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
-University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
-University of California/Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
-University of California/Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
-University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
-University of Colorado/Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
-University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
-University of Denver, CO, USA
-University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
-University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
-University of Maryland/Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
-University of Maryland/College Park, College Park, MD, USA
-University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
-University of Missouri/Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA
-University of Missouri/St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA
-University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
-University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
-University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
-University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
-University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
-University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
-University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
-University of Texas/Austin, Austin, TX, USA
-University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
-University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
-Universitats und Landesbibliotek Halle, Merseburg, Germany
-Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
-Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
-Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
-Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA
-Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
-Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
-Yavapai College, Prescott, AZ, USA

Public and Private Libraries
-Bloomington Public Library, Bloomington, IL, USA
-Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY, USA
-Burlington Public Library, Burlington, IA, USA
-Cedar Falls Public Library, Cedar Falls, IA, USA
-Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL, USA
-Chi'um Spa library, Göltürkbuku, Bodrum, Turkey
-Claymont Library, Uhrichsville, OH, USA
-County of Los Angeles Public Library, Downey, CA, USA
-Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH, USA
-Diyabakır Public Library, Diyarbakır, Turkey
-Friends of Çatalhöyük Goddess Library, Çatalhöyük, Turkey
-Genesee District Library, Flint, MI, USA
-Granca Evleri library, Göltürkbuku, Bodrum, Turkey
-Hutt City Libraries, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
-Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, IN, USA
-King County Library System, Issaquah, WA, USA
-Lake Oswego Public Library, Lake Oswego, OR, USA
-Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA
-Library Information Network of Clackamas County, Oakgrove, OR, USA
-Live Oak Public Library, Savannah, GA, USA
-Mardın Public Library, Mardin, Turkey
-Milwaukee County Federated Library System, Milwaukee, WI , USA
-San Diego Public Library, San Diego, CA, USA
-Thames Library, Thames, New Zealand
-US Air Force Base, İncirlik, Adana, Turkey
-Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, BC, Canada
-Warren County Public Library, Monmouth, IL, USA
-Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR, USA
-Phoenix Public Library, Phoenix, AZ, USA
-Selçuk Public Library, Selçuk, Turkey
-Southern Maryland Regional Library, Charlotte Hall, MD, USA
-Springfield Greene County Library, Springfield, MO, USA
-Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, Topeka, KS, USA
-Upland Public Library, Upland, CA, USA
-Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR , USA
-Whatcom County Library System, Bellingham, WA, USA

2006-07-18T20:33:00.001+03:00

Editors Host Celebrated Turkish Writer Elif Shafak

Literature and life strategies were the focus of today’s midmorning expat event in Kurucesme, a waterfront suburb of Istanbul. Anastasia and I invited Istanbul’s resident foreigners to the healing facilities of Chi’um Istanbul spa to meet Turkey’s award-winning novelist Elif Shafak and savor summer refreshments prepared by American raw food chef Chad Sarno.

Area expats jumped at the opportunity to meet Elif, a woman often in the headlines due to her recent book The Bastard of Istanbul (Baba ve Pic). Professor of Near Eastern studies at the University of Arizona and author of seven novels including The Saint of Incipient Insanities, she spoke about the writing life, the controversy surrounding her novels, and her theories on language, culture, and the historical record.

The crowd of thirty included Expat Harem contributors Katie Belliel, Mahira Afridi-Perese, Kathy Hamilton Gundogdu, Eveline Zoutendijk, and Trici Venola, as well as cross-cultural professionals Ajda Mustafova of exchange student organization AISEC and writer for Escape Artist magazine Robin Sparks, Zaman newspaper writer Nicole Ozturan, British stockbroker Mariella Edgerly, German consulate wife Cynthia Hauser, director of the Zanussi cooking school Ozlem Akyazici, writer and film producer Emine Yildirim, and many other friends from the International Women of Istanbul, American Women of Istanbul, Expat in Turkey, and other expat groups.

We were pleased to organize this event and introduce Elif to so many of our friends. A social scientist, Elif writes regularly for numerous periodicals including the Turkish Daily News and Zaman. We first met Elif Shafak while preparing Tales from the Expat Harem. In fact, Elif wrote the tear-jerking foreword for the Turkish edition of our book (Turkce Sevmek). Turkey's premier female novelist (and according to Orhan Pamuk, "the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade"), Elif is as engaging to listen to as she is to read.

After Elif’s discussion, we sampled the savory delights of Chad Sarno, author and vegan chef to the stars. Chad, who has specialized in raw food cuisine for the past 12 years, presented a brief philosophy and health benefits of his vital creations and introduced us to The Life Co., a new ‘life strategies’ global enterprise which has drawn him to these shores.

We thank Anja, the manager of Chi’um Istanbul and Figen Tuncsav of The Life Co. who graciously sponsored the event. With Chi’um’s juice bar, sensory-deprivation flotation tanks, massage bays, and yoga room, it is certainly a place we’ll be happy to frequent!

2006-06-20T12:28:00.000+03:00

National Geographic Traveler lists EH among "Best Resources"

Just in time for summer holidaymaking, National Geographic Traveler's July/August online issue includes article 48 Hours: Istanbul, which recommends Expat Harem as one of the 4 books travelers use to help plan their visit. Says NGT, "The beauty of Tales is that each story paints Turkey as the narrator experiences it, and, together, the stories construct a portrait of a people and their place."

Two of the other 3 recommended books are Orhan Pamuk's, not bad company indeed.

National Geographic Traveler reaches more readers (6.8 million) and more travelers (3.9 million) than any other travel magazine in the world.

2006-06-19T12:33:00.000+03:00

EH Reaches Over 6.9 million Americans

Over the past few months, Expat Harem was mentioned in 68 American media outlets nationwide, with the total circulation of the print media at 6.9 million, though the total number of people reached also includes the US and global broadcast of radio and television interviews as well as coverage by various internet venues.

Listen to an MP3 audio clip of our interview on University of San Francisco's KUSF 90.3 FM (aired 28 May 2006).

Watch Voice of America's television interview with us at our Washington DC event (aired 11 and 18 June on Turkey's TGRT news).

Coming soon... audio clip of Discovery Channel radio interview and University of Michigan's WCBN 88.3 FM interview

2006-06-16T11:59:00.000+03:00

EH Debuts at #1 on American Bestseller List!

We were edified to notice in the Tucson Weekly newspaper that Antigone Books in Tucson, Arizona reports Expat Harem as its #1 bestselling book the week ending May 19.

We presented the book to a crowd of 27 at Antigone on May 1, where one audience member broke Antigone's record for the most copies bought of one book in a single purchase (7 copies). Antigone sold out of their EH stock immediately following our reading, and two weeks afterward we're glad to see that Antigone's customers were still eager for more....

All our thanks to the staff of Antigone, and to our readers in Tucson!

Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week ending May 19, 2006

1. Tales From the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey Edited by Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gökmen, Seal Press ($15.95)
2. A Bruised Light Pamela Portwood, Star Cloud Press ($12.95)
3. Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution Lee Gutkind, Southern Methodist University Press ($19.95)
4. Zorro: A Novel Isabele Allende, Harper Perennial ($14.95)
5. Growing Tall in Colorado Hannah Blue Heron, Trafford Publishing ($15)
6. Healing Night: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming and Awakening Rubin R. Naiman, Syren ($14.95)
7. The Hummingbird's Daughter: A Novel Luis Alberto Urrea, Back Bay ($14.95)
8. Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections and Advice on Right Living Dalai Lama, Penguin ($14)
9. Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables Farmer John Peterson, Gibbs Smith ($29.95)
10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel Jonathan Safran Foer, Mariner ($13.95)

2006-06-01T20:17:00.000+03:00

Final Stats of US Tour

Whew! It was an excellent, if not exhausting, ride! See for yourselves (check ARCHIVES on left for the complete tour coverage)...

Dates: 12 April - 30 May
Total # of days: 49
Total # of miles: 21,000/33,796 km

Breakdown of Mileage:
International travel:
12,000 miles/19,312 km flight across 2 hemispheres and 2 continents

USA travel:
9,000 miles /14,484 km total
--3,500 miles/5,633 km driving through 17 states
--5,500 miles/8,851 km flying over 10 states

Average travel per day: 184 miles/296 km

# of States: 27, with event appearances in 10 of those states
# of Cities: 28 total, with event appearances in 22 of those cities

Event Breakdown:
# of Events: 28 total, with 21 public events and 7 private events
Venues/Hosts: 14 bookstores, 8 Turkey-affiliated organizations (both government and civilian), 3 "seven sisters" alumnae events, 1 academic conference
Audience total: 790 people
Average audience size: 28 people

2006-05-31T19:23:00.000+03:00

Homecoming Media

How nice it was to see our New York tour finale interview with Elif Ozmenek in the 31 May issue of Turkey's Referans Gazetesi .

We were also referenced in Hurriyet newspaper by Mehmet Yilmaz on 29 May, who says he found some of our stories as funny as Turkey's master satirist Aziz Nesin! What a compliment!

2006-05-29T16:45:00.000+03:00

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We were happy to make it to JFK Airport airport in one piece (or actually 10 pieces if luggage and handbags count separately), and even happier to meet Turkish Airlines employee Suna Serpin; we gave her our last copy of EH and asked her to share it with her colleagues. Suna said it was no coincidence that we came to her desk-- an avid reader, she was actively looking for her next book to read and said a positive book about Turkey landing in her hands that day was nothing short of "a gift from God".

Unfortunately, the glow of Suna's compliment was short-lived as the 11 hour flight home was punctuated by the wails some very unhappy toddlers. Thankfully only a few of the 13 babies and toddlers surrounding us were feeling distressed!

The sleepless, aggravating flight did make it all the more pleasant to return home to Istanbul, where the chatty Ataturk Airport passport control personnel quizzed Jennifer about her favorite Turkish foods. The customs controllers made us open every suitcase-- the first time we've experienced such a thing. Not that we had anything to hide, but Jennifer's technique of packing the dirty laundry on top quelled any deep searching into her gear while Anastasia skated by on her charm.

Before long we were out in the sunny, sweltering city...

2006-05-28T18:11:00.000+03:00

Brunch and Browsing

We enjoyed a leisurely Sunday brunch (orange brioche French toast, mmm!) at Marquet on lower Fifth Avenue with Anastasia’s former employer, literary agent Olga Wieser, near Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park – once the haunt of former literary resident Henry James, as well as film director Stanley Kubrick, who used to play chess in the park.

Moseying uptown to pack our bags, we stopped in at ABC Carpets, the Chelsea flea market emporium of bohemian chic home furnishings. After admiring the Suzani-upholstered chaise longues, (and deciding we could make our own back in Istanbul!) we met Halil Erdem, the Fenerbahce taraftar from Thracian Luleburguaz married to an American, and his carpet-selling Turkish colleagues Volkan and Aydin, from Kas.

2006-05-27T18:08:00.000+03:00

Mayfest's Finale

We attended the final event of MayFest-- A Mediterranean Journey: Cem Duruoz, Demetra George, and Richard Weiss, was a musical performance at the Merkin Concert Hall near the Juilliard School of Music and Lincoln Center, the home of the New York Ballet and Opera. We re-met some Turks who had attended our launch at the Turkish consulate in April!

2006-05-26T18:06:00.000+03:00

Tribeca and Central Park

We enjoyed a French bistro lunch with media consultant Carrie Tuhy at The Odeon restaurant in trendy Tribeca, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Daniel Libeskind, architectural theorist and master planner for the new World Trade Center development was at a nearby table.

Strolling past The Plaza Hotel on our way to Central Park, we spied a blue glass nazar bocugu hanging from a horse-drawn carriage, the kind of old-fashioned buggy lovers rent for trips through the massive urban garden designed in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmstead, the founder of landscape architecture. Sure enough, the carriage driver Ahmet was Turkish – although his horse Bunny was not! Ahmet said that several of his fellow Central Park carriage drivers are also Turkish…he took some EH postcards to disseminate to unsuspecting romantic tourists.

2006-05-25T17:02:00.000+03:00

Expat Harem's US Tour Finale!

The day started off with publicity; GalleyCat, MediaBistro’s publishing world blog, posted its writeup of our North American tour.

With time short and many people to see, we split up for lunch. Anastasia headed uptown for a delicious vegetarian meal at Candle on East 79th Street with TV producer and author Lisa Lemole Oz, Anastasia’s college friend who is also married to a Turk – the cardiovascular surgeon Mehmet Oz. Jennifer met to brainstorm with Ozgun Tasdemir, a New York tour operator interested in creating a series of Expat Harem-branded tours to Turkey. Ozgun also interviewed Jennifer for the e-zine of Light Millennium, an organization serving as a multifacted portal for global creativity.

Finally, our tour finale – an appearance at MayFest, the annual Turkish arts and culture festival presented by the Moon & Stars Project. Our evening was co-presented by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Formerly housing the grand B. Altman department store at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, the CUNY Graduate Center sits in the shadow of the Empire State Building.

Before the event we were interviewed for radio and print by Elif Ozmenek, the North American director for Turkey's national daily newspaper Referans Gazetesi.

In front of an audience of 65, we were pleased to be joined by EH contributor Sally “From the Hip” Green, who was in town with her husband Varol and two children, on their way to Turkey for the first time in nine years! Sally also wrote another essay for our Turkish editions, entitled “Change of Continent, Change of Heart”, in which Sally’s teenage experience with a secular Turkish family convinced her to leave a fundamentalist Christian sect with which she had become involved. Sally will join us next month in Istanbul at an international conference for scholars of Anatolia’s mother goddess tradition: The Goddess Conversations.

The evening quickly became interactive as we fielded questions about Turkish politics, art, society and Mediterranean history – and other members of the audience pitched in with their own replies and opinions. There were still hands in the air and hot topics on the table when the moderator asked us to wrap up the discussion at the one hour mark. Downstairs food and books awaited!

During a reception catered by Volkan of Turkish Kitchen, we signed books and talked to the crowd. (Volkan forgot to invite his American wife Catherine, but bought her a book to make it up!) Among those we met were Moroccan-Turk Sabah Knani who just quit her job at United Nations to open a Turkish hamam in Paris, Hale Berk, Nancy Black, Brook Hobson (a writer who traveled to the event from Sarasota Springs in upstate New York), Rita Orkin-Akdeniz (a New Yorker married to a Turk who lives part of the year in Kusadasi), Filiz Bikmen (member of Turks Like Us, a social group for American-raised or -educated Turks who return to Turkey and find that their outlooks differ from those of their countrymen), our friend Cemil Ozyurt from Turk of America magazine, Dr. Nurper Ulkuer (a program officer at UNICEF), NYU graduate student in English Kristin Dickinson, art historian Annastacia Wollmering, Ezabel Razy, Nicole Goksel, Carly Hare (a 2007 Fellow in The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society's Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program at CUNY), Vanessa Larson (a former intern at Istanbul's U.S. consulate who is now writing a book about her time in the city), Hollis Wagenstein, Fatih Vursavas (an official at the United Nations’ department of Safety and Security who hails from Bostanci in Istanbul), Joyce Katherine Jones, Gulce Agirkaya and Gulcin Bal, Cheryl (a Briton who met her Turkish boyfriend in Arabic language classes), Duygu Onat (an immunologist at Ohio State University), and filmmaker Isil Bagdadi, president of distribution at Cavu Pictures in Manhattan. Tagi Sagafi-nejad, a professor of international business at Texas A&M International University (that’s in Laredo, Texas!) came up to tell us how eloquent and accurate he thought we were. When Jennifer told him that she knew him from somewhere, he quipped that he's a dead ringer for Dustin Hoffman... and Jennifer had to admit it was true!

Also present were Anastasia’s friends Japanese translator Senri Yusa, Clio-winning advertising copywriter Robin Pollak Reiser, Dow Jones business writer Aparna Mukherjee (BMC alum #41) and her husband Will Swarts IV, architectural designer Jack Baum of Tree House Designs, and Tom Vasatka who Anastasia hadn’t seen in almost 20 years! Also attending were Suzanne and David Manning. Suzanne had been a teacher at the theatre conservatory at Anadolu University in Eskisehir in 1992-1994, while her husband is director of media relations at CUNY’s Graduate Center as well as Anastasia’s fellow alumnus of writing coach Victoria Rowan’s professional workshops.

Thanks to Moon & Stars organizers Binnaz Saktanber and Kaan Nazli, and Mehmet, photographer and technician Cansu, and ushers Ayca and Zeynep Memecan (the author of Zeynep Amerika'yı Anlatıyor, a book that explains America to newly arrived Turks).

2006-05-24T16:57:00.000+03:00

Transit Woes

Anastasia met for lunch with French Canadian pal Cristina Silveiro from United Nations French Radio. Cristina took a stack of EH postcards to pass out to her coworkers at the UN Secretariat building.

Lori Ann Krushefski, marketing director at New York public radio station WNYC, hosted us at a book club meeting at the Bryn Mawr Club of Northern New Jersey in the leafy town of Montclair. Lori Ann provided a sumptuous buffet of Lebanese food as we talked with 10 alumnae including Mimi Fogel, who has visited Turkey three times; Kathleen Milligan, who provided the music for the evening and whose family spent 5 years in Istanbul working for the General Electric corporation; and Marlies Drahouzal who likened Turkish family and friend networks with the one she enjoys in her own heavily Italian Northern NJ hometown. Surprise guest of the evening was Divya Srivastav, a long-lost classmate of Anastasia’s – they hadn’t seen each other in 15 years! Russian major Linda Henigin told us she lived in Moscow for several years and had the sense that Turkey was an impenetrable land, as if under a veil. She said: “Now reading Expat Harem I realize I could go there, and in fact want to go there! The writing is so vivid, the country so welcoming.”

Taking the NJ Transit train back to Manhattan from Montclair, we were lucky to be delayed only two hours on our return to the city – due to a massive power outage many train commuters along the Eastern Seaboard were stranded many, many hours on the trains the next day since Amtrak and NJ Transit locomotives were trapped in the tunnels around the island of Manhattan!

2006-05-23T16:52:00.000+03:00

Visit to Greenwich Village

On the corner of 5th Avenue and 29th Street (Norman Vincent Peale Way) we were struck by a powerful display: the wrought iron fence surrounding Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church which was strewn with yellow, green, and blue ribbons tied to the railing, blowing in the breeze. On each yellow ribbon was attached the name, rank, and age of each US soldier who has died so far in the 3 years of the Iraq war. Each blue ribbon was a prayer for the 30,000 Iraqi citizens who have so far been decimated by this war, while each green ribbon was a prayer for peace.

The street bears Peale’s name as he pastored the Marble Collegiate Church for 52 years. Norman Vincent Peale is best known for his anti-dogmatic approach to religion as well as his most popular book, The Power of Positive Thinking, which has sold over 20 million copies.

At an event for the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City held at a residence in Greenwich Village decked in Turkish textiles, we met eleven more Bryn Mawr alumnae, including: long-time television producer Virginia Kassel, award-winning independent filmmaker Sarah Schenck, Rebecca Walton-Chirak (a former Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan now married to a Turkmen), Alice Turner (who asked about EU issues and declared that our answers were more revealing than what she reads in the New York Times) and Meagan MacDonald, who related that last year when she announced plans to visit Istanbul she began receiving dissuading phone calls from worried friends and relatives – including an agent of the American Automobile Association to assure her the Turkish city was not safe for a single woman. None of these advisors had ever been to Turkey. Meagan went to Paris instead – but now she is renewing plans to visit Istanbul! Surprise guest of the evening was Kim Hauser Trigoboff, who looked very familiar to Anastasia but refused all suggestions of association – and she especially rejected the idea that she played sports in college. Finally she was outed as Anastasia’s former teammate on the BMC varsity badminton squad, an activity which some people do consider a sport!

Among the non-alums present were Peabody award-winning documentary director and producer Judith Helfand who is also an adjunct professor at New York University's undergraduate film and television program, and hostess Elizabeth Robinson’s condominium neighbor Maura Geils, a real estate agent who wondered about the Turkish property market – and plans to visit (if not buy) soon. We’re at the top of the market, people.

Thanks to Magda Pecsenye for organizing the event and Elizabeth Robinson and her half-Turkish boyfriend Jim Kafadar who arranged for a veritable feast of Turkish food. Anastasia especially liked the spicy chicken Adana kebabs!

2006-05-22T16:51:00.000+03:00

Fleet Week in NYC!

We arrived in Manhattan the week leading up to the Memorial Day holiday, when the town was awash in sailors. Fleet Week! As civilian tours swarmed the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard vessels docked all around Manhattan, the city streets were filled with thousands of men and women in crisp uniform, on R&R for the 19th annual celebration of Fleet Week NYC.

Hoping to take in a little culture, we popped over to the majestic Morgan Library & Museum, just around the corner from our hotel on Madison Avenue. Founded by the legendary New York financier Pierpont Morgan (at the turn of the 20th century he had a robber-baron control of American banks, corporations and railroads) and housing one of the world’s greatest collections of artistic and literary works -- including Mozart and Beethoven original music scores, Gutenberg bibles and manuscripts by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain -- the newly renovated establishment proved too popular and we couldn’t even squeeze in for a peek!

2006-05-21T21:09:00.000+03:00

Michigan Days

We spent the latter half of the week in Jennifer’s native Michigan, a place named after the Chippewa Indian word for Lake Michigan, meicigama, meaning "great water." You might not suspect it from her fair complexion, but Jennifer has distant native American roots in the Woodland Cree tribe, although the name “Jennifer” in fact comes the Gaelic word for “fish-belly white”.

Once in Michigan, we had four events in succession at major bookstore chains:

-Barnes & Noble (May 18, Ann Arbor; and May 21, East Lansing) and
-Borders (May 19, Ann Arbor; and May 20, in Jennifer’s parents home base of Brighton)

We spoke with a total of 56 people in audiences comprised of area Turks, travelers, family friends and colleagues, former professors and schoolmates.

EH contributor Katie Belliel, also a “Michigander”, joined us at two of the readings before heading back home to Istanbul. Katie’s father Ray Belliel came from Detroit for a reading, as did her college friends Sunshine Bujak and Barnes & Noble staffer Stormy.

We were pleased to meet Bryan Smith in Ann Arbor, contributor to Eastern Michigan University's Eastern Echo newspaper, who is interviewing us for an upcoming feature story. Bryan spent his childhood in Turkey and has fond memories of the place.

In Ann Arbor readings we were joined by Jennifer’s retired Western Michigan University literature professor Mike Jayne and his wife Elaine, former librarian at U of M and WMU, who drove “exactly one hundred miles” from Kalamazoo. There were other scholars as well, including Katie’s anthropology professor from Eastern Michigan University, Barbara Bilge who was once married to a Turk.

Representing the Turkish American Community Association of Michigan were Mehpare Gençyüz, Türknur Hamsıcı, Tuba Süzer-Gürtekın, and others. Winning the prize for most distance traveled to attend an EH event were Yüksel and Cindy Taşkın along with their infant Tarık --who heard about the reading from a previous night’s attendee Mehpare-- and then drove 90 minutes from Rochester, Michigan! It was not only Tarık’s first book signing, it was the first time he’d been out of the house since his birth! Their friend Müge Okuyucu drove an hour from Canton as well! Then there was Tayfun and Neeki Özdemir, a couple from Trabzon and Iran respectively. A giggling Tayfun admitted to us that he empathized most with EH contributor Dana "FeminIstanbul" Gonzalez, who wrote his favorite story. He remembers all too well how embarrassing a trip to the pharmacy can be! Sue and Osman brought their beautiful daughters, and Diana Krajewski said the book reminded her of the Turks who befriended her during her students days in Holland.

Other audience members were travelers to Turkey, like Borders staffer Chris who’s visited the country six times, and Borders Ann Arbor event coordinator James Jensen who was stationed in Turkey during his Navy days (and who came in to emcee our event even though he was on vacation)! Thank you, James... and again, we are so sorry Jennifer lost the tea set we’d brought 14,000 miles for you and carefully toted through our whole tour (only to forget it in an Ann Arbor shop minutes before seeing you).

While in Ann Arbor we also stopped by the original Borders store on E. Liberty as well as bookstore Shaman's Drum, where staffer Jason expressed his desire to see Turkey.

In Brighton, family friend Tom Mozdzen videoed the event, while a majority of the audience had read the book and was well-prepared with questions. Audience members included Jennifer’s parents Joan and Dennis Eaton, family friends, and peers from the Brighton Art Guild, Metropolitan Detroit Polymer Clay Guild, and Brighton Artique Group: Velinka Cucuz, Barbara Mozdzen, Lorie Armstrong, Rita Korzym, Lois Harvey, Janice Sparks and daughter, Pamela Day, Barbara Anderson, Ann Buckman, Jeanne Pohl, Sue Screws, Jerry Lindsay and wife (Dorothy’s parents). After the Brighton event Saturday afternoon, Jennifer’s parents hosted a lovely reception at their home. We appreciate Jennifer's mother attending each of the four events...what a trooper!

In Lansing we met up with Jennifer’s college friends Eric and Sherry Anderson with their daughters Natalie and Madalyn as well as a totally different Eric who will be traveling to Turkey for the first time next week with his Euro-hopping galpal. We know he’ll have fun (and we’ve offered to bail him out of jail if he has more fun than is allowed by law...)

On Sunday morning, May 21, we were interviewed live on-air at the University of Michigan’s radio station WCBN 88.3 FM by Mehmet Karabıyık for his Turkish Delight program. Mehmet said he especially liked the Hamam chapter while Murat, a listener who called in to the show, asked us about the plight of women in Turkey. Fellow Turk, DJ Yalçın Yanıkoğlu of WCBN’s Dromedary Hour, declared we were national heroes for the country.

2006-05-17T21:43:00.000+03:00

Turkish American Day and EH Media

We were en route from Seattle to Michigan on May 17th, Turkish American Day, but we were able to celebrate the occasion by interviewing with Ahmet Toprak of San Francisco Turkish radio, who will soon air the program on KUSF 90.3FM.

In the next few weeks we will also be interviewed by Paul Lasley on Discovery Channel’s syndicated nationwide radio show as well as Travel Talk Radio with Sandy Dhuyetter.

We’ve been receiving recommendations in the media recently, like in Jane Magazine editor Katy McColl's May 3rd blog entry:

I pick out books based on their titles…I also think Tales from the Expat Harem (edited by Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gokmen) and A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews have nice titles. The NYT book review has its criteria, I have mine. — Katy

Tour guide extraordinaire and 30 year travel writing veteran Rick Steves (author of Europe Through The Back Door) lists Expat Harem among his must-reads for people visiting Turkey.

Expat Harem is now in the University of Denver’s Penrose Library, too, and now available at Tesco (UK’s leading chainstore) and Tower Records.

2006-05-16T06:32:00.000+03:00

Brother Can You Spare a Dime (or perhaps this kilim)?

We must commend Dena for planning such gorgeous weather. Apparently sunny, cloudless, high-80 degree days are not common for Washington in mid-May. In fact, the three of us were working up quite a sweat walking around the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle, dropping by shops to pass out EH postcards and welcome people to that evening’s event.

Egyptian Jehan Strouse at Bee Well Vitamin Shoppe saw our nazar boncuğu jewelry and immediately began chatting with us about her days in her homeland, taking us up on an offer to check out Dena’s bellydancing classes, an interest they share... Jehan also shares a name with Dena’s son (spelled Ceyhan in Turkish). Kathy Riley, owner of Bonnie River, a fair trade and world friendly store, swapped retail ideas and stories with Dena, while Jennifer clamored over Kathy’s unique and affordable fare, finally settling on a cat-shaped flaxseed-filled eye pillow (thus ending her nationwide search for “just the right one”). We stopped by Istanbul Cafe on 45th St., surprised to find new Indian proprietors rather than Istanbulites. In any case, they make quite a decent cup of Türk kahvesi.

Strolling on, we met John at Open Books: A Poem Emporium and though Jennifer had no intentions of purchasing a book (we are over our airline luggage weight limit as it is!), she was nevertheless beguiled by Naveed Alam’s A Queen of No Ordinary Realms. This is the stanza from a poem called Bewitched that quickly hooked her:

She grabs a sea breeze by the hair, hisses
in its ear: dulled your knives on the leaves, missy?
Let me show you how to skin the autumn.

Upon reading the remainder of the book later, she realized that the overt homo-erotic imagery in many of the other poems-- though stunning and powerful-- didn’t quite speak to her as personally as Bewitched had. And, Naveed recycled too many of his more distinctive adjectives... but the book is the winner of the 2003 Spokane Prize for Poetry, so what does Jennifer know?

As Naveed teaches creative writing at City University of New York, we might run into him at our book tour finale: the May 25th Moon & Stars Project Mayfest event at 6:30pm at 34th and 5th Avenue (free and open to the public).

Eventually we found ourselves in Mehak Indian Cuisine for lunch, where we were served a mouth-watering meal by the strikingly blue-eyed Gurmeet Kaur and her husband Jagtam Singh. It was the best dal we’ve had in a long time, and their salty lassi would give any respectable Turkish ayran a run for its money! Gurmeet, just learning English, was effusive in her hospitality and we’re sure Dena and family will be going back there.

When we ambled into Wide World Books & Maps, we were pleased to hear that owners Simone Andrus and Stanley Toops will soon be in Turkey with a Fulbright Scholarship group, and that several other employees of this independent seller of travel books consider Turkey a favorite destination. As we lounged outside on the bookstore’s bench, we met Bertan Akın, his sister Aslı, and his American wife Jill, the three of whom were very excited to join our event, particularly Jill, who was eager to learn more about her husband’s culture.

Though the day was spotlessly sunny from dawn to dusk, a crowd of 32 packed into Wide World to listen to Dena, Wendy Fox, and us, including: Izumi Pınar Sekine Fairbanks, a 1984 graduate of Istanbul International Community School where Jennifer worked and Dena’s children attended school; Stefanie Durbin, content editor for the travel website Expedia; filmmaker Carol Geertsema; local realtor and Turk Fest organizer Yasemin San, a Turk who has lived in Seattle for 25 years; Laura Finkelstein; Zeynep Angın Shorter and her mother visiting from Turkey; Margaret and Rick, who are soon off to Ankara for business (with perhaps a stop in Cappadocia); and Andreas Wanka and Mayumi Tsuru, among many others.

The energized crowd shared Turkish stories of their own, like one gentleman who, while short of cash on two separate trips through Turkey, found vendors and service providers willing to give him goods like hand-made carpets –and even a 9 night hotel stay when his debit card was eaten by an ATM—fully confident that he would clear his debt once back home.

It was an excellent night, and though no donuts played a part in the late evening festivities, we enjoyed stargazing on Dena’s deck in the dark, listening to the gentle sound of small waves breaking on the lakeshore.

2006-05-15T10:26:00.000+03:00

A Room with (an Alpine) View

At Third Place Books in verdant Lake Forest, Washington we were joined by EH contributors and local residents Wendy Fox (“Coming Clean in Kayseri”) and Dena Sukaya (“The Business of the Bazaar”).

Dena now is the proprietress of Ottoman Trading Company in Bothell, WA, carrying treasures from Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Earlier in the day we met Jeffrey Altaras at her shop whose family has Sephardic Jewish roots in Tekirdağ, Turkey.

A crowd of 23 included Eleanor Jones, a woman who has traveled the world as an international teacher for 35 years and just returned from a trip to Turkey; Joanne and Danny White who were Peace Corps Volunteers in Ankara teaching chemistry at Middle East Technical University; King County Public Library staffer Jessica McClinton and İlker Cengiz; Heidi Heidenreich who will soon be traveling to Turkey and her friend Margy; Tracy, who was a history of religions student in Iran in the 1980s; and Sean Finney from Cingular Wireless who is entertaining the idea of working in the cellular phone business in Turkey.

Dena, our long-time friend from Istanbul and an excellent hostess, served us whisky and donuts as an after-dinner celebration as we giggled over "old times"...

Her home on Stevens Lake has a breathtaking view of Mount Baker pictured above.

Mile Marker
Anastasia and I are now on our 6,000th mile (!!!) and 22nd state. Tonight was our 20th event, and our overall audience total has hit 610 for an event average of 30 people per event--not bad!

2006-05-13T11:04:00.000+03:00

The Godfather of Adana

We spent the weekend relaxing and soaking up the summer temperatures of Sacramento with Anastasia’s sister Monika Ashman. Though it was over 90 degrees in the shade, our visit was cool and comfortable with a barbecue party in the garden with Monika’s pals Colleen Stanturf and Sarah Obermeier.

In addition to the fabulous portabellos Colleen prepared, we had fresh local asparagus and sweet corn from a veg stand in Dixon, veggie kabobs, shrimp stirfry, and even some fresh coconut (after our agressive attempts with various tools and hardware to crack that sucker open).

Sasparilla (aka Sass), Monika’s regal black cat, played coy most of the weekend, but allowed us to bestow our congratulations on her for her 13th birthday Sunday.

Sunday afternoon we cruised through Sacramento’s Old Town which sports the original wild west style buildings and historic-looking storefronts from its pioneer past, complete with saloons, a riverboat, wooden “gangplank” sidewalks, and horsedrawn carriages.

On the airplane to Seattle that evening, we met The Godfather of Adana, Milton Ruffins. Now in the office of Washington’s Attorney General’s Office, Milton was once stationed in Adana, Turkey during his time in the US Air Force JAG Corps. Milton had such a wonderful time in Turkey that he’s maintained his friendships with his Turkish “family” for over 25 years, even acting as the godfather to his friend Cahit Gezir’s daughter Yasemin. Milton returns to Turkey frequently and even participated in Yasemin’s wedding, to which 4,000 guests came (many out of curiosity to see the American godfather)! Aside from being a one-man promotional team for Turkey, Milton also writes for an Olympia-based newspaper on cross-cultural events and issues.

2006-05-11T20:30:00.000+03:00

Palms, Plants and Painted Ladies

We started off the day with a special treat—Anastasia’s architect/artist/horticulturist friend Todd Worley toured us and our hostess Alicia around San Francisco’s famed Conservatory of Flowers near the eastern end of the Golden Gate Park. Having Todd lead the way through North America’s oldest existing public conservatory was a particular treat; as a volunteer there and an extraordinary green-thumb, his input made the exhibits even more intriguing. Together we spotted the Luna Moth perched on a flower in the butterfly exhibit and marveled at the variety of the conservatory’s flora.

After lunch at Park Chow they took Jennifer to at Alamo Square park for a view of the city’s reknown “Painted Ladies”, a row of historic Victorian homes typical of the style found throughout the area.

We stopped in at Get Lost Books on Market Street to sign their copies of EH and met GLB staffer Lee Azuz, whose family has roots in Turkey reaching back 400 years as Sephardic Jews who relocated to Çanakkale and whose family still speaks Ladino, the historic Jewish-Spanish dialect.

The refurbished historical Ferry Building was hopping that evening with its semi-weekly farmers’ market, some of whom joined us and Catherine Salter Bayar for our event at Book Passage. Among the 31 audience members were Catherine’s friend Kim Smith, parents Gayle and Phil Salter and family, Alicia’s friends Jerry and Dilara Guay (Dilara’s sister Dilraba in Istanbul is currently staging a one woman show she wrote and produced called “Mustafa Kemal’i Sevdim” about the important women in life of Turkey’s founder); Cindy Casey of Broadway Travel, who is investigating how to get EH on cruise ships; Margaretta von Recklinghausen, a Reiki master, who was particularly interested the shamanic roots of Turkish culture; five BMC alums including Katharine Patterson and Susan Brock; Dany Vallerand, a San Francisco antiques dealer whose best friend Shellie Corman has a cafe in Cihangir; and Brandy Donahoe and husband Terry, who lived in Turkey a few years ago when Terry was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. We met Brandy in Istanbul at an American Women of Istanbul meeting, so it was nice to have our paths cross again in a new context!

Alicia, Dilara and Jerry took us to a Thai restaurant next to Book Passage called The Slanted Door, where we met her friend Tuğçe, who coincidentally was in Jennifer’s Bilgi University belly dancing classes 4 years ago! We spent the evening reliving our teacher Nesrin Topkapı's unusual methods.

Jennifer again has a Thai soup recommendation: crab and asparagus...

2006-05-10T01:43:00.000+03:00

People's Republic of Berkeley!

The day started with a drive to Berkeley for lunch with Anastasia’s parents Charles and Terese at a little cafe around the corner from their home: Chez Panisse, the jewel of Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto”. We left a book for proprietress Alice Waters, who has been inspired by her experiences in Turkey.

Afterwards Anastasia drove Jennifer through neighborhoods where spring rains had turned free-form residential gardens into fantastical blossoming behemoths which threatened to envelop the houses!

At our Black Oak Books appearance where we were joined by Catherine Salter Bayar, the manager Lewis Klausner had his hands full trying to rustle enough chairs—they were filling up as quickly as he could put them out. We were pleased to have such a strong crowd, considering 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was speaking at another venue nearby. In the end more than 60 people were in attendance at Black Oak, with many patrons having to stand throughout the presentation, like the white-maned senior bicyclist who kept his helmet on the entire night! Familiar faces from Anastasia’s past included family friends and colleagues like artist Diana Wolfbear, and Berkeley Hills Realty brokers Nancy Mueller and Peter Damm. Anastasia's Sacramento-based sister Monika sent her friends Tosha Davis and Colleen Stanturf. Also present were a lively contingent from the Bryn Mawr Club of Northern California, bringing the alum count to 16: Doris Beers, Faith Wallace-Godsen, Mary Aline Stevens, Kathleen Greene Orloff, and Kate Makofske. Black Oak quickly sold out of its EH stock.

Catherine's artist pal Kim Smith was on hand as were Alicia’s turkophile friends Maryam Ghassemzadeh, her father, and her husband Mohammed Kolahdooz invited us to their home for a fabulous feast Maryam prepared. Lovers of Turkey, they have had a summer home in Bodrum for many years now.

2006-05-09T00:14:00.000+03:00

Mystery Man (not) at Cody’s

We began the day in San Francisco looking for Fillmore Street’s Turkish population, which turned out to be an easy task... Our first stop was O & Co. Mediterranean Food Merchant where we met Eser Özkay, originally from Malatya who has lived in USA for 25 years. Next door was Cafe L’Mediterranee, whose owner Levon was also happy to hear about EH.

We stopped by Browser Books to sign some EH bookplates before heading down to Union Street in Pacific Heights where we met Meltem, who owns a small jewelry store—we knew she was Turkish as soon as we saw the nazar boncuğu necklaces she was selling! We met others along Union, like Joanie Giannini who loves traveling to Mediterranean countries and has Turkey next on her list!

At Cody’s Books on Stockton Street (the Union Square branch of the reknowned Bay Area independent bookseller) we were pleased to be joined by two EH contributors: Ana “The Language of Family” Fletes and Catherine Salter Bayar. Also in the crowd of 19 was professor John Levy, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and his Turkish wife Lale; Judith Sender, sister of John Levy and organizer of the speaker series at Noe Valley Ministry ; architect Bobbie Sue Hood, the 11th Bryn Mawr alum to support the tour; Hayal Koç of JPMorgan Chase; Denise Wilkerson who saw a mention of EH on Moorish Girl, the literary blog of author Laila Lalami-- after our event says she’s inspired to pen her own account of living in Cairo!

Conspicuously absent was the blonde gent in the suit who stopped by Cody’s 30 minutes beforehand telling the events coordinator Rachel that he had gone to school with one of the EH writers.Though he said he’d come back later for the event, he never did! Who are you, mystery man?

With a group of friends from the reading we dropped in at the ultrahot 111 Minna Gallery South of Market, and dined at Osha Thai Restaurant with EH contributors and friends. Jennifer recommends the coconut soup Tom Yum Ka.

Thank you to our kind hostess Alicia DeVilla, Jennifer's friend from the Expat in Turkey forum, who sacrificed her comfort for days while putting us up!

2006-05-06T21:43:00.000+03:00

Lillies of the Valley

We headed back towards the Hollywood hills for an event on May 6th at the Tarzana home of Naime Berkoz, member of Turkish American Ladies’ League (TALL), whose board members organized this lovely Sunday brunch. Thank you to president Asuman Yılmaz, and board members present: Demetra George, Dilek Yücel (who is the mirror image of Jennifer’s mother in her thirties), Meral Haymes, and Ayşe Gören.

A crowd of 50 ladies and Demetra's debonaire father enjoyed Naime’s stunning sylvan view of the valley from her veranda as well as the sumptuous buffet.

After selling out of TALL’s 50 copies and our 27 copies of the book (!!!) we enjoyed the warm temperature and sunshine as we spoke with an audience of Turkish ladies; American, Greek, Mexican, and German “gelins”; and adult children of Turkish and American parents.

Demetra (TALL founder and Grammy-nominated soprano) introduced our anthology as what she calls a “bathtub book”—so good, you want to relax in the tub with it! Wife of the Honorary Consul General for Northern Cyprus, Demetra bought 11 copies of the book for her husband’s diplomatic colleagues as well as all her friends.

Hafize Turgut of aLAturkaonline videoed the event and will follow with an interview later this month.

Audience members shared their own experiences, too, like Renate Günen, who describes her life as a young German bride in Istanbul in the 1960s. Leyla Cohen told us, “Having been born over 50 years ago to an American and one Turkish parent, it is good to hear of literature coming from [those who experience Turkish culture through foreign eyes].”

We were overwhelmed by the interest and enthusiasm of the members of this group and hope to meet them all again on our side of the ocean!

We wholeheartedly agree with comments by Network Security Consultant Tülin Mangir. She pointed out Turkey’s life-changing effect on famous Chez Panisse founder and food revolutionary Alice Waters, who, in Lonely Planet’s The Kindness of Strangers says, “The Turks were hospitable in a way that made the mythical come alive. It was as though we were living that beautiful story of Baucis and Philemon who took in Zeus and Hermes when they were visiting earth disguised as travelers. They gave us the very best of everything they had.”

2006-05-06T10:16:00.000+03:00

A Sunny Day in Irvine

After breakfast in La Jolla, California and a stroll along the wild beach cliffs to enjoy a flock of brown pelicans and a colony of harbor seals, we headed north to the master-planned community of Irvine.

The Orange County Turkish American Association graciously hosted an event for 27 people at the Alumni House on the campus of the University of California, Irvine, organized by Sevda Aleckson and sponsored by local Turkish businesspeople.

Thank you to Baklava King who provided the event with what Jennifer says is the best baklava she has ever had (and she's had A LOT)!

We were pleased to meet members of the Turkish American community like Ahmet Atahan, a board member of the Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California (ATASC) and one of Anastasia's fellow Cihangirlilar; and the half-Turkish half-American Michelle Drouse, vice chairman of the ATASC and an urban planner at Forma who intends to work and live in Turkey one day.

We were also joined by a slew of American businesspeople who have longtime ties with Turkey as well as those who are embarking on new ventures in the country: the worldly Bill Edwards (president of Edwards Global which consults American firms on direct foreign investment opportunities) declared his years living in Ankara as the best he spent abroad; Diane Landau, the president of the project management consulting firm Global Resources is heading to Turkey this summer; and career transition specialist William Ellermeyer travels to Turkey regularly for business.

Jennifer was happy to meet fellow Western Michigan University alum Mustafa Arat and his family. Mustafa noted that he recommended EH to WMU cultural anthropologist Sarah Hill. Perhaps the anthology will make it onto a reading list at Jennifer's alma mater!

EH has been added to the libraries of these universities:
-University of Wisconsin/ Madison
-Florida Atlantic University

2006-05-05T09:57:00.000+03:00

Del Mar, CA: The Hollywood of San Diego

The Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California San Diego hosted us on Friday, May 5th near the seaside at scenic and stylish Del Mar, California. Our hostess, the president of ATASC-SD Arzu Kurkoğlu, did a wonderful job organizing the event and the group’s members gave terrific support, plying us with their homemade baked goods, like Hande Efe’s börek. Thanks also to Hande’s husband Cem (who now spells it “Jem”) for being our official photographer.

The audience of 30 included Turkophiles like Lynn Heyman-Hogue, a French teacher who told us, “I feel like you wrote this book for me personally. I have become obsessed with Turkey and my friends who haven't been there don't understand. I come home from my trips there so excited to share my experience, but there's no one in my circle who can relate. I was thrilled to read your book and realize there are people out there who feel the same as I do."

Others, like Bill and Sharon Bethard, have family members who have married into Turkish families so they are doing what they can to immerse themselves in the culture (their daughter Lynn Çetin has been teaching at Bilkent for the past 4 years). ATASC-SD member Sengul is even teaching them Turkish! Some people there were married to Turks, like Victoria Kırtay, environmental scientist in the US Navy, who lived 2 years in Istanbul and wedded a Cypriot Turk.

Some were children and adult children of Turkish and American parents, like Canan Serdar (who was responsible for selling 42 copies of EH to enthusiastic attendees that night) and Defne Jones, with whom we share a mutual friend (Marlene Elwell from Bilkent University in Ankara).

Still others were cajoled into coming, like Davis Kayemba from KPMG, whose friend had attended our LA Book Soup event earlier that week! Davis, you enjoyed yourself, admit it!

And at each appearance, we have had the staunch support of the local Turkish community. The San Diego Turks who joined us included: soprano singer Ayşe Underhill whose husband Robert penned MIT Press’s highly regarded linguistics book Turkish Grammar; Pamuk Bilsel and her mother Hilal; Nazlı and Sibel Güner and Sibel’s friend Katherine Lo; Seda Doğan; and Gül Abut, to name just a few...

After the event, we enjoyed drinks with our hosts at a neighboring bar, which was hopping with Cinco de Mayo revellers!

2006-05-03T19:31:00.000+03:00

Hurray for Hollywood

May 3rd on the Sunset Strip, a few paces from legendary entertainment establishments like the Whisky A Go Go nightclub and the Chateau Marmont hotel, we had our Hollywood debut at Book Soup, “Bookseller to the Great and Infamous”.

Since Anastasia has lost her voice and is reduced to a whisper (allergic to the Western United States?) we were lucky it was an intimate evening surrounded by her friends from their days at Metro Goldwyn Mayer motion picture studio, including Dianne Magambo from Yahoo (also our LA hostess), screenwriter Billie Jo Mason who evaluates creative material for the William Morris Agency, and Sarah Shaw, reknowned boutique clothier and handbag designer to the stars.

Questions from other audience members revolved around the dating scene in İstanbul (Los Angeles residents seemed surprised to hear that chivalry is not dead!).

2006-05-02T00:43:00.000+03:00

Hospitable Desert Climes

Welcomed to Tempe, Arizona by the many-limbed Saguaro cacti and the screamingly bright yellow blooms of the green-trunked Palo Verde trees (Arizona’s state tree), we found the Sonoran Desert more hospitable than hostile, though it is known as the hottest North American desert.

Tempe’s sunny disposition was further enhanced by the 70 people who attended our event on Tuesday, 2 May at the Efes Turkish Cuisine restaurant! A huge thank you to organizers Arzuhan Kavak and Zeynep Kılıç working under the auspices of the Turkish American Association of Arizona (TAA-AZ) and The Bosphorus Art Project. Zeynep and husband Ali were also kind enough to host us in their lovely home. For this evening event the owners of Efes graciously provided a sumptuous and complimentary buffet of of Turkish meze like lahmacun and patlıcan salatası. And ohhhh, what baklava!

It was wonderful to have EH contributor Catherine Salter Bayar and Kim Smith join us again for this event, and we thank her friend Everett for allowing us to recruit him as our official photographer for the evening.

We were pleased to meet attendees like Jeni Grossman and her husband Dr. Gary Grossman, founders of the Tiny Peaces project, a goodwill and charity organization aimed at providing grassroots assistance to economically challenged Turkish communities. Arizona State University professor and former Fulbright Scholar at Middle East Technical University, Dr. Grossman has traveled to Turkey 34 times in the last fifteen years. During their year and a half living in Turkey, Jeni worked for the GAP organization in Ankara and received an international journalism award for her series of news articles in the Turkish Daily News about the Zeugma Excavation in Turkey’s Southeast. In mid-May, the Grossmans will be leading a group of Americans to Turkey for one of their projects and many from the group were in attendance that night.

Anastasia noted that it took family-loving Turks to reunite her with some extended family in the Phoenix area, including relatives she hadn’t seen in decades...like cousin Roberta Romano and family, and great aunt Marie Ippolito and family!

Also joining us was Jacie Carter, director of the Carter Foundation for fostering literacy and combatting domestic violence and LinDee Rochelle, founder of Women Writers of the Desert, as well as members of her writing group. There were so many people at the event that it was difficult to keep track of how many new friends we were making. About half the crowd were from Tempe’s Turkish population, and the other half were friends, relatives, and Turkophiles.

Milemarker
En route to LA today, we are now in our 19th state and our 4,215th mile! Hollywood is today’s destination for our evening appearance at the celebrity-frequented Book Soup.

2006-05-01T03:44:00.000+03:00

Arizona Dream

Leaving the lush green hills of Nashville for the hot but blooming desert of Tucson, Arizona was a shock to our systems – but we were soon enough in our element at independent bookseller Antigone Books, who hosted our Monday, May 1st event.

EH contributor Catherine Salter Bayar--author of Water Under the Bridge-- was on hand, fresh in from the performance of her piece at Orpheum Arts Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an event complete with seven bellydancers... Her artist friend Kim Smith joined her as well.

The crowd of 27 who came to see us at Antigone consisted of Tucson Turks and their significant others like Hikmet Kocamaner (currently penning a paper on the 1978 Oliver Stone movie Midnight Express); Dr. Senzil Nawid from University of Arizona’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW) who is writing a novel about an Englishwoman in Afghanistan at the turn of the century; and many Turkophiles who have worked in, traveled to, or hope to eventually travel to the country.

Danielle Van Dobben wins the prize for most enthusiastic audience member. After checking EH out of the University of Arizona library some weeks ago and reading it cover to cover, she set the record at Antigone for most copies bought—seven copies of EH to distribute to all her friends!

EH in University Libraries
More and more universities are beginning to carry EH in their libraries. Besides University of Arizona, the anthology is also on the shelves of these institutions:
-Georgetown University
-Tennessee State University
-University of Alabama
-University of Michigan
-University of Vermont

MileMarker
We have now covered 3,736 miles by land and air, traversing 18 states (14 of them via car). We have held 11 events now, presenting to over 290 people.

4.5 weeks left to go!

2006-04-30T01:30:00.000+03:00

EH Editors Find Themselves in Tennessee State Penitentiary

....Or we would have, had we not realized we missed the turn for CAO Cigars a mile earlier. We have to admit we were a bit dubious that we would have any audience come out that day given the rainy weather and the remote location, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a full parking lot and the second largest crowd of our entire tour so far!

The 42 people in attendance on Sunday, April 30th filled every available chair in the luxurious showroom of premium cigarmakers CAO, owned by the Özgeners, a family whose matron Esen seems to be the patriotic pinnacle of Nashville Turks. Esen, a former Vanderbilt professor of Child Development, had primed the audience well-- and admitted to having given away most of the books she had intended to sell that day. There were Turks of all generations present, as well as Esen’s book club friends who had already read and discussed the book. She even brought along her water aerobics classmates!

Adding to the inquisitive and participatory audience were: travel author and editor of the Perceptive Travel website Tim Leffel (Tim reviews Expat Harem in the May/June issue of PT's online magazine as well as blogs his impressions of this event on his BookLocker site); photographer and wanderer Todd Adams; Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology Dr. Richard Odom; Dr. Yıldız Binkley, Director of Libraries for Tennessee State University –Oprah Winfrey’s alma mater (Dr. Binkley and other audience members suggested EH is a project that would certainly appeal to Oprah and we agree!); German ladies Karsta Eryaşa and İnka Odom (İnka is seen as the local authority on some of the best things to see and do in Turkey!); and Barbara Card and Bruce Poag, Jennifer’s longtime friends from her high school days in Nashville.

Thank you to Madonna Coffman and Esen, Aylin, and Murat Özgener for a wonderful event! Thank you also, to Cynthia, Greg, and Hubbard Weil, who hosted us (along with their dogs Bubba and Cassius).

Milemarker 2000
While in Nashville, we clocked the 2000th mile of our tour, right at the intersection of Hillsboro Road and Harding Place in Green Hills, just a block from Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe, known for its history as a “launching pad” for country music songwriters.

2006-04-29T23:48:00.000+03:00

Visit to Bowling Green, Kentucky

We stopped in Bowling Green on April 29th to visit Jennifer's brother Chris, his wife Julie, and their beautiful kids Hunter and Claire. It was a special treat to be able to celebrate Claire's 3rd birthday while we were there, at a birthday party attended by friends and family.

Aunt Jenny also got to go to Hunter's baseball game and can attest that seven-year-olds can wallop a baseball pretty fiercely (in fact one of the pitching coaches was lucky not to have lost his noggin). Hunter got two hits that game as well as one run!

2006-04-29T23:22:00.000+03:00

A Fountain of Nostalgia in Dayton, Ohio

After a flattering and informed introduction by C. David Bowman of Books & Co. (he called the anthology "a crisply edited treasure trove of intercultural adventure" and admitted he had stayed up to 6 a.m. reading it!), we had a lively reading for 17 people in Dayton, Ohio on Friday April 28. Anastasia had a reunion with her former Los Angeles housemate Annetta Major, who brought her mother and her grandmother -- a family which hails from former Ottoman Empire outpost Macedonia. Sharing their own memories of Turkey were husband and wife Dave and Matty who were once attached to the U.S. military in Ankara 1979-1981 (they bought books for Matty's book club and a retirement facility where Dave now works, and suggested that the collection is a perfect primer for military families preparing for Turkey postings); Lynette, whose daughter we met earlier in the day at Dayton Mall and convinced us of the six degrees of separation every American has with Turkey when she revealed that her mother worked for the U.S. Department of Defense in Ankara and Karamürsel in the 1970s and her father was in the U.S. airforce at Turkey's İncirlik base; and a librarian from the Claymont Library of Uhrichsville, Ohio, who purchased a copy for its collection. We also were pleased to meet a member of the Dayton Turkish community, pianist Tiraje Guneyman Ruckman, who moved from İstanbul to the USA in 1970 to study music at Juilliard, where she met her American husband. A misty-eyed Tiraje said she thought "Expat Harem was a wonderful book, presenting so many facets of Turkish life in an honest, truthful way". When she got home from the reading she wrote to tell us that "it just felt good to hear some positive stuff for a change about Turkey rather than all the stereotypical falsehoods."

2006-04-28T00:53:00.000+03:00

The Little Red House

Despite having announced the wrong address for our event last night (Wednesday, 26 April), we were thrilled to be joined by so many enthusiastic supporters. For those of you who may have been knocking fruitlessly on the door of that cute little blue house at 1836 18th Street, we apologize! We were at 1536 a few blocks down in the little RED townhouse...

As soon as we showed up, there were television cameras pointed at us. Özge Ovun from Voice of America News interviewed us and filmed the event, which will air on Turkey’s national TGRT News (9:30PM on either 30 April or 7 May).

Also filming was Erju Ackman and his partner Goksin Carey. Erju is a filmmaker, as well as the owner of Mavi Boncuk blog. He and his wife began interviewing us in Istanbul in January for a segment they will air on Virginia’s Channel 10 (WSLS NBC) in the near future.

Organized by the ever-supportive Didem Muslu of the American-Turkish Association of DC, the event was held at the homebase of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations —the Türkevi (Turkish House), and was attended by ATA-DC president, Pelin Aylangan (who is currently penning a Turkish culinary history and memoir) and secretary, Patsy Jones (whose Fenerbahçe-loving Turkish inlaws are scandalized by her love of the rival football team Beşiktaş!).

Audience members included: Yalçın Sert, director of student portals at the University of Maryland and owner of various forums and web portals; Ralph and Linda, who are currently enrolled in US State Department Turkish language courses for Ralph’s impending posting to the US Embassy in Ankara as an FDA specialist (both Ralph and Linda told us they wished their entire Turkish class would have attended our event); Janet, who empathizes with EH contributor Catherine Yiğit as she also finds the dynamics of her large Turkish family daunting to navigate; Turks like Ayşe, a Crimean Turk, and Özge’s parents visiting from İzmit; and other daring American gelins, like Jetta Karabulut who has road trip adventures of her own to tell, like a trip from Istanbul to Mersin in 1968 with her two year old in tow!

2006-04-26T19:00:00.000+03:00

Mystery Man Bearing Flowers and Fruit...

In our third appearance in DC, we presented the book to a crowd of 19 at Candida's World of Books, an Italian-owned shop devoted to international literature and music, located in the Logan Circle area.

We were pleased to be joined by journalists, travelers, culture hounds and artists including: Liz Gracon and Danielle Monosson, friends we met in Istanbul during their posting to the U.S. Consulate there; Kay McCarty, whose daughter has worked in Diyarbakir and Mardin, Turkey (a fan of Expat Harem, Kay bought her 9th, 10th, and 11th copies of the book at Candida's!); traveling an hour from Baltimore was Jeannette Belliveau, the author of soon-to-be-released Romance on the Road, a book documenting the controversial 'sex pilgrim' movement which Anastasia reviews (from an opposite stance) in the upcoming July/August issue of Perceptive Travel; Dawn, two-time visitor to Turkey for classes in the art of glasswork at the Cam Ocagi /Glass Furnace (inspired by EH contributor Diane Caldwell, Dawn may soon find herself relocating to Turkey); and Kirin Kalia, an editor at Migration Policy Institute, who brought the Bryn Mawr alumnae count on this tour to 10.

Most surprising guest was Mr. Sandler, a stately white-haired gentleman who, at the end of the event, wordlessly presented us with a bouquet of yellow roses and a sack of oranges!

2006-04-25T06:01:00.000+03:00

1,000th Mile

As we drove into Washington DC, we hit the 1,000th mile of our book tour at the junction of Connecticut Ave. and East West Highway. This also marks our 7th state after an evening in Philadelphia catching up with Susan Jackson and family—Susan was the first friend I met in Istanbul when Bil and I moved there in 1995.

The nation’s capital... What they say about DC in springtime is true—cherry blossoms galore. But the cherry trees had stiff competition from the blazing azaleas, delicate dogwoods, pansies, and hydrangeas decorating all corners of the town.

The first stop of the day was a visit to the reknowned Politics & Prose bookstore on Connecticut Ave. to sign copies of EH. We were pleased that the manager immediately recognized the name of our book and said she’d already sold several.

Our first event in DC on a balmy evening at sunset on Sunday, April 23rd, was a gathering of 12 friends, family, and neighbors on the veranda of our hostess Ashley Doherty. Guests included World Bank executives, lawyers, Knight Ridder staff, a Peace Corps alum, and even the aunt of my Istanbul neighbor Betsy Smith! Bryn Mawr alumnae count: 5.

The next event was today (Monday, April 24th) at the NGO Population Action International on Dupont Circle, an organization devoted to issues of women and children in the developing world. The brown bag lunch talk was comprised of 14 PAI staffers, including Heather Papp, intern and Master’s student of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University who has a Turkish signficant other. Besides each person buying a book, they were also quick to secure a copy for their resource center.

Afterwards, we dropped by Olsson’s, Books-A-Million, and Kramer Books near Dupont Circle to sign their copies of EH.