Hello again!

Back with a new version of my newsletter: 'ajanda' or essential notes on life

I started the first version of this newsletter (Tipped) in 2020 while I was mustering up the courage to carve myself a space to write while working at a dull job. I published 10 issues, which I am quite happy with. Then life got in the way, and my courage vanished.

I quit that job over a year ago, and no, I didn’t magically regain that courage — it was more than that. I had to rethink and rebuild what it is that prompts me to write, which I thought for a long time was courage, to dare to take up space.

Well, sometime last year I came to the realisation that I don’t need courage to write or to ask for permission to create. I simply do things now. I know it may not be revolutionary to some, but it is to me.

So I started doing things I’d always wanted to do. I am now writing a graphic novel titled Aslında Yüzü Güzel, and comics with my dear friend Belkıs. It is about growing up fat in Turkey in the early 2000s, sort of auto-fiction.

For the past 5 years, my dear sister Duygu and I have been sharing the stories of ‘ordinary’ women in Turkey on Onlyherstory, and will continue to do so in new formats (hehe). I have so many ideas that I hope I can share them with you one day.

In the meantime, I read (mostly fiction) and see art exhibitions (mostly in London), both of which inspire me tremendously. I try to cook, make things, see films on Monday when it is cheaper, and discover new cafes with my partner, Burak.

When I thought about how I could bring all of these things together and resurrect my newsletter without fussing over it, I scribbled down the word ‘ajanda’ in Turkish — the concept of ‘essential notes’, and it instantly clicked.

From now on, this ‘ajanda’ will be a place to record my essential notes pertaining to my daily life. I might publish in Turkish, too. Who knows! I am a person who simply does things now (so she says).

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