Interview with Bonnie MacLachlan
editor of Seda's Story

Q Can you give us the background of bringing this book to publication? How did the writings first come to you?

A Seda was a student of mine. I could see that she had a gift for writing and was a sensitive but fragile person. Eventually I became aware that she was suffering from some deep wounds that led to attempts at suicide. When she communicated this to me, together with the reasons for her despair, we would talk. I never attempted to be a therapist, but offered support to her when she was struggling. Eventually she shared with me some of her writing, which revealed the nature and consequences of her abuse by her father. I came to know her mother, sister and brother, and when she died her family asked me to help assemble her writings and arrange for them to be published.

Q How would you describe the impact Seda's writings had upon you when you first read them?

A They were powerful and disturbing, and touched upon the deepest places in which despair can reside. At the same time, there were moments of great beauty.

Q What poetic influences do you think show up in Seda's work?

A I don't think that Seda turned to poetic models for her writing. Her words sprung from her own soul and her life experiences. At the same time, the well of darkness that provoked some of her best writing has some features in common with Sylvia Plath.

Q Who do you see as the readership for this important memoir? What do you hope to achieve through its publication?

A This work will resonate with other victims of parental abuse, with survivors in a family that has struggled with this, with caregivers and therapists of abuse victims and with those doing research on violence against women and children.

Q Do you think if Seda's childhood experiences had occurred today there would have been a different outcome for Seda and her family?

A Yes. There would have been more support for family members to support Seda when she attempted to confront her father. As it was, these individuals were terrified of the power wielded by this man, and acted in the best way they knew to preserve the lives of all his family victims.