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Food, Travel, Writing

Manama  : Nazli Tawfeeqi is known on social media network for her blog writing about food dining and travel. She holds a BSc in Marketing and Management from Ahlia University and has been working as a Manager of HR and Administration in a family business along with her father and brother in Dheya Tawfiqi Engineering Consultancy Bureau for the past eight years. 

Tawfeeqi, along with her friends during her university years, established New Dawn Society in 2006, which is a ladies’ society with a focus on young women.

She also published her first novel My Foggy Tomorrow in 2013. It started as a weekly story being sent to her friends every Thursday morning in 2008, they then encouraged her to publish it after completing her pieces five years later.

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Scenic writing

Nazli has two blogs; one is her food and dining-out blog apronandnapkins.blogspot.com and a general blog nazlitawfeeqi.com, which has travel journals, articles and diary entries.

Speaking to DT News, Tawfeeqi expressed her passion as if she was bringing the scenes inside her mind come into life.

“It is my favourite way to express myself. I love fiction and drama. My head is always full of thoughts, questions and scenes that I like to put together to make stories. When it comes to travel journals, people always ask for recommendations before travelling to certain destinations and I like to have a detailed blog post that could be used as a guide. I also find food writing very interesting, especially after developing a passion for cooking recently, and I’ve always been a big fan of the dining scene.”

Talking about what sparked her passion for writing, Tawfeeqi recollected: “It started in school. My teachers used to encourage me to write and they loved the stories that I used to write as assignments. I never stopped since then and attended several writing courses afterwards. I don’t share everything I write.” “I have three completed novels and am currently working on the fourth, which is the only one that I’m planning to publish. I abandon my blogs when I write novels and I have a long list of pending posts that I need to work on.”

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Writing as a passion is one thing, but Tawfeeqi has managed to combine both her passion for writing and travelling, which inspires her to keep exploring and guiding people through her blog.

“I’m very passionate about exploring cities and beach destinations. Every year I want to visit a new city and a new beach in addition to some yearly destinations that I’m addicted to, like Istanbul and London. Cities inspire me. I’m a big fan of Turkey, its culture, music, and I’m even learning the Turkish language now. Everything about Istanbul is a big source of inspiration for me, especially The Bosphorus.”

As a message to aspiring writers, she said writers should not restrict themselves within certain styles or rules. 

“Sky is the limit when it comes to creative writing. Join writing groups and share their talent with others who can provide feedback,” opined Tawfeeqi.

Speaking briefly about her experience in writing My Foggy Tomorrow, she said, “I only printed 500 copies to be sold in Bab Market, but after the huge demand I had to distribute it in bookstores. It was sold out in around one month and I intentionally didn’t print more copies as I prefer releasing new novels that represent the writer I am today and not who I was back in 2008.”

“I am currently working on a new novel and planning to publish it. But you never know, I could wake up tomorrow morning and change my mind. My next published work will be something that I’m comfortable with and confident about,” she concluded.