Belma Ötüs Baskett is the President of the
For more information, please email Belma Ötüs Baskett at: belma.baskett@btopenworld.com
Excerpt from newsletter:
FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY:
It gives me great pleasure to write to you with news of the 2005 conference in Cortona, Italy, where the 30th anniversary of ISCLT was celebrated. Also I shall give you details of the 2006 conference > click here which will take place at Burç Hotel at the Kilyos campus of Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey from 18 July to 1 August, 2006.
The Cortona conference was busier and more enjoyable because the 30th Anniversary celebrations came on top of the usual activities. It was the biggest conference ever, with 70 participants, breaking the record of the Maynooth conference in 1997 which had 65 participants. The theme, very topical as well as universal, took us all over the world with cultural encounters of all kinds at all levels. There were excellent papers; some presentations of creative work were very poignant, being in the confessional mode. Of the several poetry evenings, one had been set aside for Gerald Parks who first ISCLT attendance was the first-ever conference in Italy, but due to his severe lung condition he could be there only in spirit, through his beautiful and moving poetry as Marina presented his work. There were interesting workshops on fiction, translation and drama, nurturing the mind, while yoga and dance workshops nurtured the body. Drama presentations were plentiful and very varied. Stephen had brought a play by Elfriede Jelinek, the recent Nobel Prize winner. Belma had brought a play about the life of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, which depicted her encounter with the culture of Istanbul, giving a glimpse of the life in the Harem – exotic costumes and Turkish music constituting an introduction to the 2006 Turkish venue. Emily had again written a special play for ISCLT. For the final banquet Jeff composed an operetta of Italian food names while pasta packages flew around as ‘favours’ for all participants. I do not have space to describe all the marvelous plays that showed great ingenuity and talent; they are detailed in the conference report.
This year Marina had taken a different tack with excursions. Several were of shorter length because Cortona is in the centre of Tuscany with easy access to many historic sites and great art and architecture. We visited many cathedrals, churches (one inside our hotel which had been built as a monastery}and monasteries, one specially that had been a rest stop for St. Francis on his way to Assisi. The highlight may have been Siena: even the queue for the Duomo did not dampen the enthusiasm of members. Some even found such out-of-the-way entertainment as watching a show of trained falcons. The cafés in the Campo were popular for rest and refreshment. It was as if we lived in the Renaissance, breathed Renaissance air. For the celebration dinner at the end of the first week Marina had chosen a ‘rare’ type of restaurant, an organic farm that combined contemporary ecological correctness with the gourmet cooking of Mamma Donatella.
At the business meeting a hitherto-overlooked topic was discussed and an amendment was proposed for the by-laws, to the effect that ‘anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated and may lead to suspension of membership’. Money matters and bank accounts were discussed. The ISCLT account in British pounds Sterling continues and some members still prefer to pay into it. The Euro account in my name (due to British law allowing only a real person to open a Euro account) has worked well, as all transactions in Italy were in Euros. The bank charges a commission for every transaction and sends a statement for it. These statements were distributed to members showing when and how their remittances had arrived and what commission had been deducted. Then possible future venues were discussed; the Kranes’ find of Laulasmaa in Estonia was voted as the venue for 2007. Members are looking for venues in Spain and Portugal for 2008.
ISCLT 2006 will meet in Istanbul, Turkey, 18 July to 1 August.
The theme is ‘Water in Contemporary Literature and Theatre’ – a theme very appropriate to the four bodies of water we shall have access to, the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus that separates the two continents of Europe and Asia that Istanbul straddles. Our venue is a beautiful and ecologically interesting site within easy driving distance of art and architecture of the last thousand years. Istanbul has been the capital for three empires, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. We will meet in a 4-star hotel situated on the Bogazici University campus. In front of the hotel is a sand beach with a lifeguard on duty. Besides swimming, there are facilities for all kinds of sports. For papers and workshops, there are plenty of amphitheatres and smaller rooms with state-of-the-art technology at our disposal. We shall take our meals on a terrace overlooking the Black Sea.
ISCLT has reserved all the single and double rooms of the hotel. A deposit must be sent to guarantee booking. Please, make your reservations and send your deposit as early as possible, before 20 January, 2006. Rooms will be allotted on a first-come-first-served basis. The cost for two weeks per person in a double room with full board (breakfast, mid-morning coffee, lunch and dinner} is 500 Euros (Five hundred). For one week the cost is 260 Euros. Preference is given to two-week bookings. The single supplement is 140 Euros for two weeks and 70 Euros for one week. Please note that the booking form has blanks for the type of room requested and for any dietary restrictions. Please also note that the clause about deferring deposits has been removed as hotels nowadays charge for no-shows; thus no rooms can be reserved without a deposit. Your booking form should be accompanied by a check or money order in my name, in Euros, for half of the appropriate total. The remainder may be paid at the conference in New Turkish Liras (NTL) obtained by your personal arrangement. Automatic teller machines (ATM) are plentiful; the first ones you come across will be at the airport. If you do not wish to deal with money matters at the conference, the remaining amount may be mailed to me before 10 May. The membership fee remains the same, £10 or 15 Euros. Please add this amount to your remittance. The scholarship fund accepts contributions that are made available to cover part of the conference fees; confidentiality is respected.
The Spring mailing will contain full details of how transfers from airport to venue will be arranged by ISCLT, as well as a receipt acknowledging your remittance. I hope to hear from you soon. Happy Holidays to ALL OF YOU. Sam and I are looking forward to seeing you in Istanbul for a very special conference.
Belma Otus Baskett
Executive Secretary
For more information, please email Belma Ötüs Baskett at: belma.baskett@btopenworld.com
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