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For me, writing has always been about holding on to love, memory, and hope, and offering a little of that to others through the stories I tell.
Journeys in search of refuge
In this Q&A Fidan Meikle author of My Name is Samim talks to talks to Pen&inc. about her journey as both a writer and Azerbaijani migrant living in Scotland.
Pen&inc – Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.
Fidan Meikle – I’m Fidan Meikle, a writer and linguist living in Scotland. I was born in Azerbaijan and moved to the United Kingdom as a young adult. Stories have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Long before I could write them properly, I was already trying.
Starting over in a new country was an exciting adventure, but leaving my homeland was also one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I missed home deeply: the people I loved, the places that had shaped me, the language and rhythms of everyday life. Writing became the thread that connected the world I had left behind with the one I was learning to call home. It helped me carry the people and places I missed into this new chapter of my life, and to find a sense of belonging wherever I happened to be. For me, writing has always been about holding on to love, memory, and hope, and offering a little of that to others through the stories I tell.
P&I – Thinking about when you were growing up, what were the books you enjoyed?
FM – I grew up in the Soviet Union, at a time when we were encouraged to read certain books more than others, mostly the classics, and especially the poetry of Alexander Pushkin, which I absolutely adored. But the books that truly captured my heart were the ones that offered a glimpse of the world beyond the borders we were so proud of.
I was fascinated by stories about faraway lands and people who lived, spoke, and thought differently from anyone I knew. Those books felt like magic to me, each one a doorway to somewhere wondrous and unknown. My first favourite chapter book, for example, was a Vietnamese Cinderella story, though
Autumn-Winter 2025
it was nothing like the Cinderella most people know. It was filled with Buddha’s prophecies, shimmering magic, and beautiful illustrations of women in elegant Vietnamese traditional clothes and conical hats. I thought it was magnificent. I think those books planted the seed of my curiosity about the wider world, sparked my love of travelling, and, above all, showed me how stories can carry us beyond all borders.
P&I – And was that love of reading matched with an early love of writing? Were there any authors/writers who particularly inspired you?
FM – As I mentioned earlier, I loved Alexander Pushkin’s poetry, and I’ve been writing poems myself since I was a little girl. At first, it was pure fascination, how poetry could make simple things like trees, the sun, or the sky seem hundreds of times more beautiful just by choosing the right words and rhythm. Later, in my teenage years, poetry became a way to express my feelings, which, as they often are at that age, were usually a storm. As a teenager, I also fell in love with Mikhail Bulgakov. I re-read The Master and Margarita too many times to count and admired how extraordinary it was and how every time I read it, it revealed something new I hadn’t noticed before. Stefan Zweig was another favourite. His short stories had everything I craved back then: wild, passionate tales about flawed humans living through extraordinary events. I still remember the sadness when I finished the last story in the book I’d borrowed from the library.
After that, I sat down and wrote my own Zweig-like stories and read them to my sister and parents, who grinned and nodded and told me they were brilliant, because they were kind and they loved me. My mum
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