A Reading by Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaten Gökmen:
Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey

Co-presented by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at Graduate Center, City University of New York

Thursday, May 25, 2006
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

The Graduate Center, The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10016,
Room 9207

A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Free admission

The Moon and Stars Project is proud to co-present a reading from Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey edited by Istanbul - based American writers Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gökmen. The reading will be followed by a discussion, book signing and reception.

Already a number-one national bestseller in Turkey, the critically-acclaimed Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey was released in North America by Seal Press in March 2006. The anthology showcases the captivating Turkish lives of 29 foreign nationals from four continents, with real life stories spanning the past four decades and the entire country as scholars, artists, missionaries, journalists, entrepreneurs, Peace Corps volunteers and many others that have assimilated into Turkish friendship, neighborhood, wifehood, and motherhood. The anachronistic title ironically mirrors erroneous yet prevalent Western stereotypes about Asia Minor and the entire Muslim world, while declaring that the writers are akin to foreign brides of the Seraglio, the 15th century seat of the Ottoman sultanate: wedded to the culture of the land, embedded in it even, and yet forever alien. Exhilarating, funny, and daring, this collection of expatriate literature takes readers to weddings and workplaces, down cobbled Byzantine streets, into boisterous bazaars along the Silk Road and deep into the feminine powerbases of steamy Ottoman bathhouses. All the while, the subtext illuminates journeys of the soul as the narrators -- Australian and Central American, North American and British, Dutch and Pakistani -- demonstrate the evolutions Turkish culture has shepherded in their lives.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül has declared that the anthology’s positive, humanizing message is important for Turkey’s global image. The award-winning Turkish novelist Elif Shafak penned a moving foreword to Türkçe Sevmek, the Turkish-language edition. She calls the book "thought-provoking", noting that it "successfully transcends cultural stereotypes while probing the relation between the limitlessness of female venture and portable homelands."

"Funny, sad, exciting, ribald, and always enlightening, these stories paint a fascinating picture of modern Turkey. There is no better account of why this country has captured the imagination of so many modern women."

Stephen Kinzer, journalist and author of Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds

“In the harem, Ottoman women could take off their veils and tell their stories. Accomplished modern women in Tales from the Expat Harem tell us much more. Varied, absorbing personal adventures reveal today's Turkey--modern and familiar, traditional and exotic with a depth, sincerity and delight found nowhere else. They fling open the doors of an unknown world and let us see everything. I've been waiting a long time for this book!”

Tom Brosnahan, originator of Lonely Planet Turkey,
founder of the Turkey Travel Planner website and author of travel memoir Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea

"Daring and delightful, Tales from The Expat Harem reveals lives few of us venture to embrace and enchantments few of us risk experiencing. Bravo to the women in this book who courageously unmask themselves as well as the strange, new country that they encounter."

Ellen Boneparth, former U.S. diplomat, and founder and director of the International Women's Studies Institute