Novelist Elif Shafak

July 20th, 2010 admin www.ted.com Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al...Read Full Story

This is the second article of the “Women Entrepreneurs to follow in life and.. on Twitter”, a Blueliner blog campaign that seeks to emphasize not only strong women, but those who adapt themselves to the business world and inspire people worldwide to follow their footsteps. Anastacia Ashman is a strong woman, entrepreneur, journalist, essayist and a world traveler seeking unique experiences. Anastacia Ashman is an award-winning writer and producer of cultural entertainment. Ashman is the...Read Full Story

Author Elif Shafak was acquitted after being taking to trial for "insulting Turkishness" when a fictional character described the Armenian genocide in her latest book. AFP/Getty Images You can listen to the entire program and buy her new book, The Bastard of Istanbul , here. Elif claims that Article 301 was introduced as a positive/progressive step towards EU integration.. at least compared to older articles which it replaced.. but that it is open to mis-interpretation and exploited by the...Read Full Story

This is an entertaining novel and a wonderful story of how the cultures of two families become intertwined with their personal relationships. Elif Shafak has created two fascinating young women, one a Turk living in Istanbul with her Aunts and one an Armenian living in Arizona with her mother and stepfather. Each girl is intelligent and they both enjoy reading although one is obsessed with existentialist authors while the other is immersed in modern literature. It is clear that the author has...Read Full Story

Elif opines (paraphrased) that the enforcers of Article 301 are a minority who want to stop the EU process.. who want to see the country as a more xenophobic nation-state.. a closed society.. and I quote: "..It intrigues me to see how Armenians in the Diaspora tend to be past-oriented.. memory-oriented.. whereas when you look at the Turks.. that's not the case at all. We are more future oriented.. and in some ways we are a society of collective amnesia. So it's not only 1915 that we are...Read Full Story