Proud to be an Expat

Many, many years ago I read an article in a Turkish newspaper asking for contributors for an anthology about foreign women in Turkey. I felt like it had been written directly to me. When I first came to Turkey I shunned all foreign company. That sounds very high and mighty but it really wasn’t hard to do in Çanakkale of the early 2000s, there were very few foreigners to avoid. My reasoning was that I had to throw myself into Click for more

Homage to Hybridity

When I read the Week 9 post it immediately brought to mind my wonderful hybrid sisters. They deserve to be named: Anastasia Ashman, Tara Lutman Ağaçayak, Rose Deniz, Sezin Koehler, Judith van Praag, Elmira Bayrasli, Catherine Salter Bayar and Jocelyn Eikenburg. These are women consistently remind me that being myself is ok, in fact, that it is terrific. Our backgrounds are varied, our locations global, what unites us is a belief in ourselves and an acceptance of our hybrid nature. What Click for more