ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TARA LATIFA ALİSBAH
I am the inheritor of two cultures: American and Turkish, and within them, another eight or so, as both of these cultures are far from homogenous. I was born in Ankara, Turkey, my father’s homeland, then moved to the USA, my mother’s homeland, then India, the place they met, then back to the USA. This inheritance of many cultures and lots of moving and confusion and different languages, all before the age of 5, created in me a quiet watchfulness and the ability to notice things about cultures that those within them often miss. It also made me very eager to uncover ways to understand each other and be understood that weren’t tied to spoken language. That is how this book came to be. Somehow, I was the first person to notice Turks that talk with their hands and write it all down. This language of hands, not quite body language, but the language of energy brought into communication through the physical, fascinates me. I can’t get enough of it.
I am also the author of a children’s book called The Beautiful Young Seamstress and a book of Sufi poetry and gems from my teacher Abdul Aziz Said and my other teacher: my son Eden. I takes people on trips to discover Turkey’s hidden treasures, including Cappadochia and Mardin, trips I like to call the mystical tour of Turkey. In 2005 I founded an international preschool in Turkey, Eden’s Garden, for my son and which is still running under a new owner. My BA is in Comparative Literature from Washington University and MA in International Relations and Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). I worked at the World Bank, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Library of Congress. And I have a business in Energy Modalities for Radical Transformation and Freedom at TaraAlisbah.com.
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