Occupy Seattle Library Needs Books

One of my most memorable book signings took place at the Occupy Seattle Library. It's located just around the corner from Elliot Bay Books, one of Seattle's finest independent bookstores. The day I visited the encampment, Adrienne Sevilla, standing on my right, had just been appointed Head Librarian three days before. The tent library has roughly fifty books. Her co-worker Darlene Nordyke, holds a masters in library science and is currently out of work, so she's donating time here along with Adrienne and others. To learn more about Occupy Seattle and how you might support them, visit http://occupyseattle.org.

Meanwhile, Occupy New York City's library lost thousands of books in a police raid. Democracynow.org reported, "In a press conference held last week, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel revealed that property taken in the raid filled 26 sanitation trucks and nearly 80 percent of the roughly 4,000 books housed in the so-called Peoples’ Library were either destroyed or never returned." For more details visit:www.deomcracynow.org

Creativity Abounds in a Turkish Public High School

Today I had the pleasure of visiting with a first year high school English class at Sultanahmet Suphi Pasa School in the historic district of Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss creative writing. The students' view from the outdoor basket ball court is of the Blue Mosque--one of the most glorious mosques in the world!

I found the students in this school to be polite, engaging and creative. Nine or ten students raised their hands when asked if they would like to be writers or illustrators. We discussed the picture book The Shape of Betts Meadow and examined the initial sketches for this picture book. When talking about perspectives and point of view in writing and illustrating, one student offered that it would have been interesting if the book had been illustrated from the main character Gunnar's point of view. This is an idea that I had not heard before and find very intriguing. To view some of the illustrations of this book visit the link below.

Two students wrote poetry and another liked photography. The students enjoyed hearing my novel Anahita's Woven Riddle/ Sicak Bir Ask Masali read in English and then in Turkish. They said they practice writing descriptive stories also.
My visit ended on a lively note when two young men treated me and the class to a traditional Turkish dance. Someone switched on their ipod and the room filled with music, clapping and fancy footwork. Please see the video of these students' dance among the other films on the bar at the bottom of this blog. I am sorry I filmed it vertically, one of these days I will learn not to do this!

Visit again in the coming weeks for more details about my experiences in Turkey this spring.

Illustrations link: http://www.meghannuttallsayres.com/Meghan_Nuttall_Sayres/Betts_Meadow_About_this_book.html

Meet Me at Tin Man, Too Bookstore

Please join me this coming Saturday, April 9th, 1 pm at Tin Man, Too bookstore in Spokane, Washington, for a for Persian tea (chai), a reading, show and tell, and a discussion about my travels to the Middle East for research on my young adult novel Anahita's Woven Riddle.

For further details check out The Spokane Books Blog:
http://spokanebooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/meghan-nuttall-sayres-at-tinman-too.html

I look forward to seeing you there!

Retro Review

It's a delight for authors to know that books they've published a few years ago are still being read and enjoyed. Here i share a retro review from the blog Reading Extensively about my novel Anahita's Woven Riddle.

"The novel is filled with interesting facts about Persia and the nomadic life, as well as beautiful Sufi poetry. The imagery, from descriptions of elaborate carpets to Anahita’s favorite scarf, shows the love that the author has for textiles. A glossary in the back includes helpful definitions and pronunciations of Persian words and the appendix provides more information about weaving and Persian history. There is a fairy tale quality to the story which I also enjoyed. Anahita’s Woven Riddle will appeal to those interested in other cultures."

Thank you, Christina for the retro review! Check out her other reviews at: http://reading-extensively.blogspot.com

India's Children's Book Trust

Seated with me is Ira Saxena, Secretary of the Associaition of Writiers and Illustrators for Children in New Delhi. She is also a volunteer for India's Children's Book Trust, an organization that publishes books for children in hundreds of local dialects and sponsors literacy programs along with IBBY through out India.

Manorama Jafa, the Vice President of AWIC invited me via email before coming to India to attent their monthly meeting in which twenty or more writers attended. On this particular day, they celebrated the acquisition by a major publisher of their first Hindi dictionary for children, a book the Trust had published many years ago. Royalty checks were distributed to several of the authors attending the meeting.

On a second visit to the Children's Book Trust, Ira Sazxena interviewed me for an article she will write for Indian IBBY Journal. Our discussion roamed from the craft of writing to the underlying theme of Sufism in my novel Anahita's Woven Riddle and our favorite translations of Persian poetry, which Ira grew up reading. Her mother translated the Sufi poetry of Omar Khayyam into Hindi. Ira is presently at work on a novel set in 1800's India with an environmental theme. "Did you know the world's first tree hugger was in India?" she said. I had never given much thought to the origins of this kind of activism and assumed it may have been in the California redwoods. I look forward to reading this novel in the near future. For more details about the Children's Book Trust, its volunteers, and my trip to India, please check out the Central Asian pages on my website.

Readings in Galway, Ireland

This October I had the pleasure of reading to students in Galway, Ireland, at the Westside and Ballybane Libraries. The sixth class of Galway Educate Together National School proved to be an enthusiastic group, their questions about writing a novel, the plot of Anahita's Woven Riddle, carpets and Iran began before I made it to the podium. Hand after hand shot up for a full hour! They were so engrossed with the discussion that after asking me riddles of their own, they invited me back to their school the next week to view slides of Iran. Check out the video below for a taste of my visit with them. Questions asked in this clip: "I read the last page first. What was the answer to her riddle?" "How old was Anahita? Who did she marry?" and "Are you famous?"

I wish to thank Tom Donegan of Children's Books Ireland for arranging my readings in Galway. Maureen Moran of Galway Libraries, Marina Hughes, teacher at Galway Educate Together N.S. and the teens and librarians at Ballybane for welcoming me.

Sorry, the video wouldn't load, will try again soon...

Weaver's Perspective on Iran

Friends of the Moscow Library invited me to speak on Iran this August about my recent experience weaving on Iran's First World Peace Carpet and my novel set in Iran Anahita's Woven Riddle. To learn more about the Peace Carpet, a project sponsored by UNESCO, please check out the Iran or Weaving pages on my website.

Modeling this Iranian Qashqa'i nomadic headpiece is Homa Assefi, who attended my talk. Many thanks to Homa! This three-pieced covering evolved over many generations. The blue beanie has been worn for centuries along with the black sequined veil. In the 1960's teenagers added the tie-dye like scarves.