Identity messages

(JUNE2010) This blog **HAS MOVED** to expat+HAREM, the global niche, where my cultural producer posts now appear in a new series called Founder’s Desk and you can find the latest on me and my works.

FEATURED PROJECT: expat+HAREM, the global niche My community site — inspired by the cultural embrace and spirit of self-exploration in Tales from the Expat Harem — speaks to intentional travelers, identity adventurers and global citizens.
Coming, going, never quite arriving. The psychic limbo of these globetrotting, multicultural, hybrid times is expat+HAREM’s sweet spot. Our neoculture. We’ll help you find your global niche: a psychic solution to your global identity crisis.

Expat Harem launched by media mogul Arzuhan Yalçındağ

I’m a writer/producer of multimedia entertainment to further the worldwide cultural conversation. I like to illuminate personal dynamics, from one family to entire hemispheres, and pin-point truths about how identity is formed through culture, and lives in our thoughts and actions. I mostly focus on women, culture, travel and history.

My kaleidescopic productions capitalize on a countercultural upbringing in Berkeley, California, thirteen years of expatriatism (Rome, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul) and a decade in mainstream/pop-culture American media and entertainment (NYC, LA). Plus, a liberal arts education and Bryn Mawr degree in classical archaeology!

with Turkey's culture + tourism minister

I’m the founder of neoculture hub expat+HAREM, the global niche, and with Jennifer Gokmen cocreator of the expatriate literature collection Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey, a book endorsed by NBC TV’s Today Show, Lonely Planet and International Herald Tribune. Studied in seven North American universities, its literary ambassadorship is widely supported in Turkey.

featured by NBC Today Show

In Istanbul, where I’ve lived with my Turkish husband since 2003, I am the producer of the Near East’s 1st Global Nomad Salon in association with Janera.com. The Economist calls this worldwide series of intellectual dinner parties “jetsetters with a conscience.” In 2009 I became a founding member of TEDGlobal.

My art, culture, society, travel writing has appeared worldwide in Asian Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, National Geographic Traveler and Cornucopia, the magazine for connoisseurs of Turkish culture.

Global Nomad Salon at Four Seasons Hotel, Istanbul

Upcoming projects: A forensic memoir of friendship between two women writers spanning 25 years — this life and the afterlife. I’m developing an enhanced ebook based on my Expat Harem wedding tale “Like An Ottoman Princess” about bridging my radical West Coast family and traditional Near East in-laws at a palatial Istanbul wedding. Think: a grittier culture clash than Meet the Parents crossed with an ethnically realistic My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

with Turkish fashion designer Atıl Kutoğlu

Podcast walking tours are also in development, to complement other story delivery methods for the soap opera life of a 6th century Byzantine princess who spurred an emperor to create an architectural wonder of the world. Illustrator wanted for a graphic novel for iPhone/iPad, based on a black comedy screenplay. With the story’s author Jennifer Lawler, I cowrote the script about starcrossed lovers who also happen to be mercenaries — and 17th century English scholars.

produced speaking event for Turkish writer Elif Shafak

As I do on my Twitter feed (I’m a top-ten Twitterer in Istanbul), on this blog I share resources for women, writers, readers, global nomads and thoughtful travelers, cultural creatives and forward thinkers of all kinds.

with Melanne Verveer, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues

with US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer

I’m a social media enthusiast and cofounder of a group for creative entrepreneurs in social media, as well as a member of the neo-Internet marketing group Third Tribe. Changes in technology and the evolution of the publishing world make writers into producers, directors and engineers of content.

My notable quotes about Turkey, expatriatism, global nomadism, digital citizenry, cultural psychology, hybrid identity, and other issues close to my heart…

I look forward to engaging with you in the worldwide conversation here — or elsewhere on the web (here’s my interactive business card.)

This page has the following sub pages.

Contact me

20 Comments »

20 Responses

on June 20, 2009 at 5:14 pm Nassim Assefi

Love the new blog!

I learned to hitchhike in Latin America, where in places with few cars like Cuba, it was expected (government employees driving government vehicles are actually supposed to pick up hitchhikers). In the US, I was taught that hitch-hikers can be scary, so I was thrilled when my friend Elijah Wald wrote a positive book about hitchhiking across the US after 9-11: Riding with Strangers: A Hitchhiker’s Journey. I will occasionally pick up hitch-hikers in the US, but only usually if there are children or old ladies involved (still carry some of that paranoia). I almost always pick up hitchhikers in other countries where it’s an expected part of the culture (e.g. most recently in rural Spain), but usually not if there’s not a woman in the group.
on June 29, 2009 at 7:10 pm Anastasia Ashman

Thanks Nassim.

(For the rest of you, she’s referring to my post on hitch-hiking.) Here and on my Facebook site the hitch-hiking question brought out a lot of nuances — personal, practical, cultural and geographical — and even solid proponents had negative experiences to report. Someone got shot at while hitch-hiking in my hometown! Meanwhile others who were warned against it took their opportunities in their teens and 20s outside of their home communities, and in places where it was either a norm or a necessity… Perhaps as resources dwindle it will come back into vogue in more places, although I don’t know if our innocence can be regained.
on July 3, 2009 at 7:46 pm Mari Campos

Hi! Congratuilations! I loved the blog and I’m also following you 9and your precious tips) on twitter. I’m a brazilian journalist (travel writer), going this month to Istambul for the first time
on July 8, 2009 at 12:56 pm Anastasia Ashman

Thanks Mari. Let me know your dates and maybe we can meet when you arrive!
on July 9, 2009 at 7:20 am Tara Lutman Agacayak

FINALLY! It’s about time you started a blog for yourself. And I love it. I look forward to the conversation.
on July 15, 2009 at 9:05 am Anastasia M. Ashman

Phew, Tara! Getting to this point has not been easy. (Here’s a post about the change in my thinking about content creation and distribution and digital rights.) Basically, I considered blogging 10 years ago and decided against it because of the publishing climate (and the DRM debate, which I covered as e-publishing reporter at Internet World magazine). Publicly share your developing thinking and work online, in any form? Preposterous! That was guaranteed to disqualify your output at the serious outlets. Now the traditional publishing model and its world is struggling to survive, while innovators are parceling out content in every way they can think of.
on July 29, 2009 at 12:12 am Laura - The Journal of Cultural Conversation

So glad we connected on http://www.shewrites.com! I would love to talk more on how we could partner, if you’d ever be interested – your site is amazing and so are your accomplishments.
on July 31, 2009 at 5:40 pm Mashable Pokes New York Times Social Media Editor | the cohcom blog

[...] Note: When I originally posted this I regretfully neglected to attribute the source of inspiration for this article, @Thandelike Our conversation on Twitter after the initial Mashable piece inspired me to write this article and without her prodding and help I’d never have done it. Originally, I wrote this with @Thandelike suggestions, to be a New York Times, Op Ed piece. I submitted it but they never printed it, hence it appears here on my blog. Of course, while @Thandelike suggested and encouraged me to write this piece, I take absolute full responsibility for the content. @Thandelike is Anastasia M. Ashman. She lives in Istanbul, Turkey, a city I visited and loved, which is how I connected to her. She is Co-creator of expatriate literature collection Tales from the Expat Harem, coproducer of Near East’s 1st Global Nomad Salon and a Berkeley expat. You can read her blog, “Furthering the Worldwide Cultural Conversation.” [...]
on August 5, 2009 at 4:53 pm How Twitter works and why people in publishing should consider using it « The Book Publicity Blog

[...] Author Anastasia Ashman posts about how she uses [...]
on September 2, 2009 at 10:18 pm Chantal

Just read about you on Editor Unleashed. Love how you’re breaking out of the traditional publishing world and trying new things. As a fellow expat writer I find that very inspiring.
on September 9, 2009 at 3:48 pm Anastasia M. Ashman

Thanks Laura and Chantal. Congratulations on your blogs as well. It seems our work shares threads! Maybe we can create a blog carnival….
on September 13, 2009 at 9:32 pm Cross-Culture Tweets – Week 37 of 2009

[...] new blog for cross cultural conversation in Istanbul – [...]
on September 30, 2009 at 6:27 pm Leigh

Lovely blog, Anastasia! I’ve already added you to my reader.

Besos!
on October 15, 2009 at 9:30 am Phil Klein

really loved reading your words, while negotiations continue on an endlessly partial repatriation. home is increasingly plural, but my attention is the home i always belong with.
on October 19, 2009 at 12:21 am Cross-Culture Tweets – Week 42 of 2009

[...] to further the worldwide cultural conversation? Read this blog – More international [...]
on October 29, 2009 at 2:19 pm Anastasia M. Ashman

Thanks Leigh (the brand new editor of Matador Life, a section of the travel site about continuing the world embrace once you’re back home– congratulations Leigh and good luck!).

Phil (a fellow TEDGlobalist who’s commenting on the Rolling stone post http://tr.im/zHfA), I agree, home is “increasingly plural” for more and more us and with that reality comes a new set of issues. The maxim “You can’t go home again” sure takes on new meaning for those of us whose homes keep changing.

I hope you two (and all the commenters above and elsewhere on this blog) will consider guest posting at the new site for global citizens, intentional travelers, hybrids and identity adventurers: expat+HAREM, the global niche.
on January 12, 2010 at 6:34 pm 45 Cross-Cultural & International Bloggers To Watch In 2010

[...] Anastiasia Ashman – Furthering the Worldwide Cultural Conversation [...]
on March 21, 2010 at 12:00 am Dialogue 2010: I’ll take my anger with me | wondermentwoman.com

[...] from Wisconsin, now living in Turkey. In collaboration with Expat+Harem author (and goddess) Anastasia Ashman, they produced Dialogue 2010 to be a platform for people living a “hybrid life,” to convene and [...]
on May 11, 2010 at 1:04 pm Culture&Moore » Blog Archive » Exploring the Expat Harem

[...] recently received my first comment on my blog “Accidental Writer” from Anastasia Ashman who edited the book “Tales from the Expat Harem”. She led me to the website Expat+HAREM, which [...]
on May 23, 2010 at 6:08 am Stephen Hunt

Hi Anastasia,

One of our finest playwrights, Eugene Stickland, will be spending time in Turkey in June and July. His drama Queen Lear has been running in Istanbul for six months now at the theatre run by Yildiz Kenter. (I hope I got her name right).

You should definitely check out Queen Lear! It’s worth a look.