Anastasia M. Ashman - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Anastasia M. Ashman is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

author and cultural producer.

Background

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, graduated from Berkeley High School

Berkeley High School (California)

Berkeley High School is the only public high school in Berkeley, California. It is located one long block west of Shattuck Avenue and three short blocks south of University Avenue in Downtown Berkeley, and is recognized as a Berkeley landmark...

in 1982, and received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....

in Classical Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Archaeology

Classical archaeology

Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the great Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about in Latin and Greek texts...

in 1986. An expatriate for 11 years, she has resided in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

and Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

and currently lives with her Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

husband in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

.

Ashman spent a decade in New York and Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

media and entertainment circles, working in operations and administration for literary agent

Literary agent

A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...

s and producers of film, television, and Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

Career

Ashman is a cultural essayist, editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

and cultural producer. Her arts, travel

Travel

Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...

and culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

journalism and criticism has appeared in a wide range of publications, from international business newspapers and newsmagazines, like the Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

-based Dow Jones properties The Wall Street Journal Asia
The Wall Street Journal Asia
The Wall Street Journal Asia, a version of The Wall Street Journal provides news and analysis of global business developments for an Asian audience. It was founded in 1976 and is printed in nine Asian cities: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo....

and Far Eastern Economic Review
Far Eastern Economic Review
The Far Eastern Economic Review was an English language Asian news magazine started in 1946. It printed its final issue in December 2009. The Hong Kong-based business magazine was originally published weekly...

, to The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

and National Geographic Traveler
National Geographic Traveler
National Geographic Traveler is a magazine published by the National Geographic Society in the United States. It was launched in 1984. Local-language editions of National Geographic Traveler are published in Armenia, Belgium/the Netherlands, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Latin America,...

. She has written about Nyonya food, reviewed Tropical Classical, an essay collection by Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist. He is the author of numerous books on travel including Video Night in Kathmandu. His shorter pieces regularly appear in Time, Harper's, NYRB and many other publications.-Life and career:...

and covered a posthumous anthology by Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin was a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.He is best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique, used by his friend, the novelist William S. Burroughs...

. For Cornucopia

Cornucopia (magazine)

Cornucopia is a magazine about Turkish culture, art and history, published jointly in the United Kingdom and Turkey.-Content:Cornucopia was founded by John Scott and Berrin Torolsan in 1992. It is an English Language magazine that concerns Turkish culture...

, the glossy magazine "for connoisseurs of Turkey", she has written about the cultural contortions of joining a Turkish family.

Along with American writer Jennifer Eaton Gökmen

Jennifer Eaton Gokmen

Jennifer Eaton Gökmen is an American writer and editor.-Background:Gökmen was born in Wayne, Michigan, graduated from Brentwood High School in 1989, and received her B.A...

, she is the co-editor of the nonfiction anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey
Tales from the Expat Harem
Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey is a nonfiction anthology by 32 expatriate women from seven nations and five continents about their lives in modern Turkey, published by Seal Press in North America and Doğan Kitap in Turkey .Edited by Anastasia M...

(Emeryville: Seal Press, 2006). The anthology, by 29 expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

women from five nations, spans the length and breadth of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

as well as the last four decades as scholars, artists, missionaries, journalists, entrepreneurs and Peace Corps

Peace Corps

The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...

volunteers assimilate into Turkish friendship

Friendship

Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum...

, neighborhood, wifehood, and motherhood. The expatriate literature collection has risen to national top ten bestselling spots in the US and the UK, and is also published in Turkey, (Istanbul

Istanbul

: Doğan Kitap, 2005) where it was a #1 national bestseller

Bestseller

A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...

in January 2006, and has been translated into Turkish as Türkçe Sevmek (Istanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2005), with a foreword on womanhood, national identity and non-belonging by the controversial and award-winning Turkish novelist Elif Shafak

Elif Safak

Elif Şafak , is a Turkish writer who writes in both Turkish and English. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages.-Fiction:...

.

Ashman's personal essays appear in the humor travel collection The Thong Also Rises: Further Misadventures From Funny Women on the Road (Palo Alto: Travelers’ Tales, 2005) and in The Subway Chronicles: Scenes From Life in New York (New York: Plume-Penguin, 2006).

The author, along with co-editor Jennifer Eaton Gokmen

Jennifer Eaton Gokmen

Jennifer Eaton Gökmen is an American writer and editor.-Background:Gökmen was born in Wayne, Michigan, graduated from Brentwood High School in 1989, and received her B.A...

, was interviewed on NBC's

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

Today Show, on its annual travel segment Where in the World is Matt Lauer in May 2008.

Along with Janera Soerel, the founder of Global Nomad

Global nomad

The term Global Nomad can mean:*People with an international lifestyle, of multi-national background or living/working in more than one country:*People who grew up in a country other than their own *Existential migration...

Salons

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

and an online magazine and members-only social network, which explore issues of global citizenship and hybrid-identities, Anastasia has co-produced the Near East's 1st Global Nomad Salon in Istanbul, part of a worldwide series of intellectual dinner parties where diners discuss issues of global culture and economics. In 2009, she became a founding member of TED

TED (conference)

TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....

Global, the international conference of ideas in Oxford, England.

She is also a blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

ger, a top ten microblogger on the Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

platform in Turkey and deemed by Forbes.com as among the "top twenty women for entrepreneurs to follow". She's creator of a neoculture community for global citizens and identity adventurers. Among her web ventures which highlight the city of Istanbul and the adventures of identity are: the expat+HAREM Istanbul 2010web carnival, curating the best views from around the web and around the world in celebration of the Turkish city as European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

in 2010; and Dialogue2010, a podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

and Twitterchat series of dynamic, real-time conversations on art, culture, and hybrid identity. The HybridAmbassadors blogring project was launched in August 2010.

Works

from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey
Ashman's Cultural Producer Blog Furthering the Worldwide Cultural Conversation
Doğan Kitap, Turkish publisher of Tales from the Expat Harem and Turkish version, Türkçe Sevmek
Seal Press, North American publisher of Tales from the Expat Harem
The Thong Also Rises: Further Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road
The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York

Awards/Honors

From the international relations group Daughters of Atatürk, Ashman and her Expat Harem co-editor were honored with the 2006 "Woman of Distinction Award", an annual title bestowed on women who have "demonstrated vision, leadership, innovation and professionalism" in "giving their talents to the international Turkish community". Other 2006 honorees include Güler Sabancı
Güler Sabanci
Güler Sabancı is a third-generation female member of the renowned Sabancı family, and currently the chairperson of the family-controlled Sabancı Holding, the second-biggest industrial and financial conglomerate of Turkey.-Biography:...

, Caroline Finkel
Caroline Finkel
Caroline Finkel is a British historian and writer based in Turkey, with a doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London....

, and Leslie Peirce.
"Top twenty women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter" (Forbes.com, July 2010)

Background

Career

Works

Awards/Honors

See also