An assistant professor at Istinye University, Leyla Savsar holds a Masters (MEd) degree from Boston University and a PhD in English Literature & Rhetoric from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. She has worked with SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted. Form of Education) at the Somali Development Center (SDC) in Boston. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey where her research focus is on immigrant narratives (especially that of children and women), postcolonial studies, and the power of storytelling in fostering empathy towards the marginalized. “Moments of Being and Becoming” is her first published compilation of poetry. Her research interests include, but are not limited to, identity/assimilation, diaspora, racial melancholia, and memory in Transnational Literature and Children’s Literature.