If you spend long enough in Canakkale and are sufficiently observant, you may notice there’s quite a lot of oak trees around. Once you see them, you realise that there are several in little groups dotted around the landscape, apparently lost in a sea of wheat, or with goats grazing the stubby grass around them. There Click for more
Author: Catherine Yiğit
Hope and Change
I grew up fed on a diet of Star Trek, both original and Next Generation, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. My science fiction was for the most part idealistic; as humans our ingenuity could solve all problems even the ones we created ourselves. I discovered Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy in university and again Click for more
Away
A few months ago I spent a week in Istanbul. The first few days were shrouded in mist and damp. Mealtimes were announced by the cries of hungry seagulls circling around the building, screaming for the bread thrown out the windows. Though right in the centre of Istanbul, we were on an island. Click for more
Against the Clock
Review of ‘Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü’ by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Dergah 1961 (17th Print 2012) This wonderful book tells the story of Hayri Irdal, a man adrift from the times he lives in. He begins as a successful member of the Time Regulation Institute, but very quickly we learn that it’s all gone wrong and he Click for more
Get Real
It can be easy to assume that life exists in the screen these days. It’s where work comes from and friendships are kindled and continued, it’s where we go for entertainment and distraction and, especially relevant in Turkey, our source for news. As I write there are 3 screens in front of four people in Click for more
Pinning the Butterfly
I’ve been putting off writing this blogpost. It feels a little like pinning down a butterfly. Flying around it creates wonderful glimpses of colour but I know if I don’t pin it down, it will flutter on its way and the memory of it will fade. I attended a poetry workshop in the local university Click for more
Falling Off the Wagon
It’s not been long. I’ve only been on the wagon (that would be the writing and blogging wagon) for the last month. I can already feel I’m flagging. Now I could say it started last week when I failed to get a post up, but that would be denying the scale of the problem. It Click for more
An Uncomfortable Truth
This post transported me back to the early days after moving to this town. When it was all new and foreign and different. We wanted out. We were not going to have children here, not going to buy a house here, definitely not going to send the kids to school here. Twelve years later here we are. Click for more
Loss
Review of ‘Bir Türk Ailesinin Öykusu’ by İrfan Orga Translated by Dr. Arın Bayraktaroğlu Everest 2009 I was a little confused when I bought this book. I thought as it was written by a Turk, that it had been first published in Turkish. I was wrong. It was first published in 1950 in the UK Click for more
Outlining the Plan
One of the things that aids a good procrastinator, sorry I mean distracts a good writer, is that there is endless debate about the best way to go about writing. So first you must decide if you are a planner or not. This refers to whether you will plan your manuscript to the last comma Click for more