Meghan Nuttall Sayres's Blog

Streetwise Istanbul, a collaborative project between myself and a Turkish photographer, Aramis Kalay, opened at the Carolina Türk Evi, a cultural center sponsored by the Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation in Chapel Hill, NC. The Sancars have had long careers at UNC’s medical school, and Dr. Aziz Sancar recently received a Nobel Prize for his […]

Happy Persian New Year to All! This spring I signed and gave away complimentary copies of my books set in Iran at local bookstores to celebrate Norooz, the Persian New Year: Anahita’s Woven Riddle, its companion novel Night Letter, and an anthology Love and Pomegranates: Artists and Wayfarers on Iran. If you live near Spokane, […]

While sheltering at home, take a few moments online to visit Streewise Istanbul: Seeing ‘Other’ As Self. This exhibition, hosted by Saranac Art Projects in Spokane, has been forced to close due to the Coronavirus. The show features images and conversations with street vendors, metro musicians, artisans and shop owners who make their living in neighborhoods […]

Last week I attended a second-annual paint studio afternoon in Spokane, Washington, with refugees and immigrants from Bhutan, Russia, and Iraq. While Refugee Connections typically brings interpreters to arts events there is often no need for them when people are given a colorful palette of paints, a canvas and a few brushes. The language of […]

    Can anyone guess the script in which this book is written? Think green. Emerald green. Emerald Isle. It’s penned in an old Irish script. The book was given to Douglas Hyde, the first president of Ireland. It is a “hedge book,” from the 18th century, a time when Catholics were forbidden to attend […]

While reading Words Without Borders this morning I came across this article by Nathalie Handal “The City and the Writer: In Bukhara, Uzbekistan with writer Hamid Ismailov.” The piece transported me back to my visit there twelve years ago while researching my novel, Night Letter, set in Bukhara at the turn of the 20th century. […]

  This spring I had the opportunity to travel to Morocco with friends. I’ve long wanted to visit this country and the Sahara Desert. So much about the people, the arts, the food and the blending of cultures (Berber, Arab, French and others) has enticed me to return. Geographically, the country reminded me much of […]

I appreciate all of you who may have followed me from this blog to my Streetwise Istanbul Instagram and Facebook pages over the last year. I will not be posting on those sites any longer but will resume regular posts on this blog related to my travels and writing.  I am currently working on a […]

Ercan Ertan bought a mini mart type store with his two sisters Silan and Hülya in Sultanahmet in hopes that their profits will put them through college. Ercan is studying engineering. His store carries a little of everything including cigarettes that he is willing to sell one at a time to help his friends and […]

I recently returned from the Utah desert, a week of hiking with my daughter, and wanted to share these photos with you. We are lucky to have many undeveloped landscapes in the American West.  I hope you get a chance to spend some time in the wilds this Earth Day weekend!