Lale Eskicioglu

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay

From a literary perspective, this past month has been very exciting. Bizim Anadolu readers will remember the column we have done on Michael Ignatieff a few months ago. I have been waiting for an opportunity to give Mr. Ignatieff a copy of Bizim Anadolu that featured two of his books, the fiction Scar Tissue and the non-fiction Russian Album. I found this opportunity on July 12th, 2010, when Mr. Ignatieff came to our neighbourhood for a community barbeque event. I presented him with the copy of Bizim Anadolu which contained the book reviews of two of his books. On August 10th, I received the following email from Mr. Ignatieff:

Dear Ms. Eskicioglu,

I want to thank you for providing me with a copy of Bizim Anadolu which contained your review of my novel Scar Tissue.

This was a very personal work for me and I greatly appreciate the kind words you wrote in your review. I will also endeavour to use Istanbul rather than Constantinople when referring to the modern Turkish city rather than the historical city of Constantinople.

Thanks again. I am always glad to meet someone with such a great appreciation of the written word.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Michael Ignatieff, P.C., M.P.
Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

Needless to say, this made me very happy and increased the visibility of our newspaper Bizim Anadolu.

The other literary development of the past month is related to the activities of Canadian and Turkish Women's Association of Ottawa (CATWAO) a "cultural bridge" organization which I am a member of. At the last executives meeting of CATWAO, it was suggested that we invite renowned Ottawa author, Elizabeth Hay to CATWAO's first event of the season, on November 8th, 2010. Several of us CATWAO members had read Ms. Hay's latest novel Late Nights on Air and had enjoyed it tremendously. We thought it would be a great idea to have this wonderful Ottawa writer as our guest and the task of inviting her was assigned to me. Elizabeth Hay was very receptive of the idea and accepted our invitation with great humility. CATWAO expects more than 60 guests on November 8, 2010 for Ms. Hay's speech which will take place at the National Archives of Ottawa.

Late Nights on Air (2007) is Elizabeth Hay's third novel and it won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her first novel A Student of Weather (2000) was a finalist for numerous awards and the winner of two prestigious awards. Her second novel Garbo Laughs (2003) won the Ottawa Book Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. Ms. Hay has also authored a number of non-fiction books and collections of short stories.

To get in touch with Lale Eskicioglu, you can write to Lale@ReadLiterature.com

August-September 2010

Old Articles by Lale Eskiciošlu:
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner, English translation by Lazer Lederhendler
The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci
Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
Yashar Kemal And His Works

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