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Alexander Christie-Miller
ALEXANDER CHRISTIE-MILLER  is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. His writing about Turkish politics and culture has been published in Newsweek, the Times, the Atlantic, and other publications. He is a regular contributor to The White Review.


Articles Available Online


Ada Kaleh

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Issue No. 17

Alexander Christie-Miller

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Issue No. 17

When King Carol II of Romania set foot on the tiny Danubian island of Ada Kaleh on 4 May 1931, it was said among...

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October 2015

War is Easy, Peace is Hard

Alexander Christie-Miller

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October 2015

At around midday on 19 July, Koray Türkay boarded a bus in Istanbul and set off for the Syrian...

AT NIGHT, THE WIFE MAKES HER POINT   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s legs I haven’t spent my life walking down runways in fashion shows, dazzled under the glaring lights of photographers My legs broaden as they reach the hip and in spite of my multiple efforts to don aerobic gear, work out and sweat, I  can’t control their tendency to widen like pillars ready to support a roof   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s waist nor her perfectly smooth and slightly concave tummy with the flawless navel at the center I might have had it once Once I  was even proud of that part of my anatomy That was before my son´s birth, before he decided to be born in haste and come into the world feet first, before the C-section and the scar   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s arms tanned, sculpted, each muscle shaped by the right exercise, the precisely balanced weights My slim arms have no more muscles than what are needed to type these characters, carry my children, brush my hair, gesticulate when I envision the future, or embrace my friends   No I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s breasts ample, round, C or B cup Mine are not so appealing in low cut dresses in spite of my mother’s assurance -a mother’s words- that breasts like mine, with no cleavage, had the classical beauty of Milo’s Venus     Ah! And the face How would I dare say I have a face like Cindy Crawford’s! The beauty mark just at the corner of the mouth Such impeccable features: the big eyes, the arched eyebrows, the delicate nose Out of habit, I’ve come to like my face: the elephant’s eyes, the nose with its flaring nostrils, the full lips, sensuous nevertheless All is spared with the help of the mane In this department, I can even beat Cindy Crawford I wonder if this affords you any consolation   Last, but not least, -and this is the weightiest piece of evidence- I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s behind: small, round, each half exquisitely outlined Mine is stubbornly ample, big, amphora or clay vase, take your pick, there is no way to hide it, all I can do is not to be shy about it use it to my advantage to sit comfortably and read, or be a writer   But tell me, how often have you had Cindy Crawford at your feet? How often has she given you

Contributor

August 2014

Alexander Christie-Miller

Contributor

August 2014

ALEXANDER CHRISTIE-MILLER  is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. His writing about Turkish politics and culture has been...

Forgotten Sea

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Issue No. 11

Alexander Christie-Miller

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Issue No. 11

I. As I stood on the flanks of the Kaçkar Mountains where they slope into the Black Sea near the town of Arhavi, the...
Occupy Gezi: From the Fringes to the Centre, and Back Again

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July 2013

Alexander Christie-Miller

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July 2013

Taksim Square appears at first a wide, featureless and unlovely place. It is a ganglion of roads and bus routes, a destination and a...

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poetry

June 2011

Testament: Two Poems

Connie Voisine

poetry

June 2011

Testament What’s the difference? You might wear it out touching, touching, not buying. Like a snail on a stick,...

Interview

Issue No. 5

Interview with Ivan Vladislavić

Jan Steyn

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Issue No. 5

Ivan Vladislavić is one of a handful of writers working in South Africa after apartheid whose work will still...

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Issue No. 19

Ill Feelings

Alice Hattrick

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Issue No. 19

My mother recently found some loose diary pages I wrote in my first year of boarding school, aged eleven,...

 

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