Serendipity is one of my beloved words in English which doesn’t
have an exact equivalence in Turkish, my mother tongue. When I dip my
fingers into the word-pool of my memory regarding our first meeting with
Sallie Bingham at the enchanted Acequia Madre House in Santa Fe,
serendipity is the word that I pull out. It was my first time in New
Mexico and my second time as a writer-in-residence in the US. She was the founding donor and the lead benefactor of WISC.
Our
brief and formal introductory talk immediately turned into a longer and
friendly conversation when Sallie modestly shared that she too was a
writer and was interested in epistolary literature among other genres.
The novel I came to write in WISC (Women’s International Study Center)
was made up of three women’s exchange of letters but the real surprise
came when she shared with me her connection to Lady Mary Montagu. I had
spent several years of my academic life on Lady Mary’s Turkish Letters, arguing how unique and ahead of her time she was from a feminist perspective.
Talk about serendipity...
click for more
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder