GoNOMAD Writer Profiles

Janis Turk: Teaching and Traveling

Janis Turk is a travel writer, photographer, editor and professor who divides her time between Texas and Louisiana.

Her work has appeared in magazines such as Hemispheres (United Airlines in-flight), Spirit (Southwest Airlines in-flight), Pontiac Performance, Luxx Jewellry, Louisiana Cookin, New York City Thrive as well as popular newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle and others.

She also contributes articles for popular travel sites such as Frommer’s and GoNOMAD. Turk has written two travel guides for Smarter Travel and has been the travel editor for Today’s Groom, as well as the managing editor of four popular regional magazines.

Turk recently signed a book contract with Frommer’s and is writing a guide book on Austin and San Antonio. She is a member of the faculty in the department of English and Communication Studies at Texas Lutheran University.




Stories and photos by Janis Turk:


The A-Ma Temple in Macau, China

Macau, China: Contradictions and Tiny Miracles

It's midnight in Macau, and a stout little Chinese woman is standing on my back.

“Whoa! This is unexpected!” I think as my chest caves into itself on the tall, hard massage table of the Wong Chio On Mo Chong Sam salon.

It's only 120 Hong Kong dollars (about $20 US) for a one-hour massage, and soon a stern-looking woman whisks me upstairs. The place conjures images of a Haight Asbury hippie coffeehouse circa 1969, or worse an opium den.

In a dark room, the woman covers my naked back with threadbare towels and proceeds to climb upon the massage table. In one quick astonishing move, she's standing on my back where she will stay for the next hour — working intricate miracles, surprises in my sinews, massaging my muscles with her toes. Read more...


The Four Corners Region: Exploring the Mysteries of Hillerman Country


Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River in Arizona

The four corners of mystery writer Tony Hillerman’s world aren’t on any map.

They lie someplace between fiction and fantasy, myth and memory, and are bordered by ancient cliff dwellings, steep canyon walls, sun-baked Zuni pueblos and dry winds that sweep across Navajo lands.

So the best way to experience Hillerman Country is to go by the book.

Take along some of Hillerman’s 20 best-selling novels while traveling through Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, and see the Four Corners region of the Southwest through new eyes.

Hillerman recalls it as “love at first sight,” when he first beheld the Four Corners region, and says he’s “been getting acquainted with its mountains, canyons and interesting cultures ever since,” and so have his readers, who have fallen in love with Hillerman’s characters and the rugged country where his murder mysteries are set. Read more...

 

More Stories by Janis Turk on GoNOMAD:

Cape Town, Again

Hiking in Huangshan, China: Finding My Own Lost Horizon

South Africa: A Photo Safari at the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve

Into a Still Country: On Safari in Namibia

Jordan: Lessons From the Other Holy Land

New Orleans Rising: Finding New Hope After Katrina

London Finally Figures out the Food Thing

The Marbles of Monroe County, Kentucky

 

GoNOMAD Contributors
Kent E. St. John Kent St. John David Rich David Rich
Max Hartshorne, editor of GoNOMAD.com for ten  years. Max Hartshorne Steve Hartshorne

 

Stephen Hartshorne

 

Sonja Stark Sonja Stark Paul Shoul Paul Shoul
Mridula Dwivedi Mridula Dwivedi Tim Leffel Tim Leffel
Shady Hartshorne Shady Hartshorne Kelly Westhoff Kelly Westhoff
Lucy Corne Lucy Corne Laurie Ellis Laurie Ellis
Rick Millikan Rick Millikan Cindy Lou Dale Cindy-Lou Dale
Cathie Arquilla Cathie Arquilla Habeeb Salloum Habeeb Salloum
Cindy Bigras Cindy Bigras Esha Samajpati Esha Samajpati
Matthew Kadey Matthew Kadey Janis Turk Janis Turk
Bill Pfeffer Bill Pfeffer Kate Cosme Kate Cosme
Inka Piegsa-Quischotte Inka Piegsa-Quischotte Jean Miller Spoljaric Jean Miller Spoljaric
Tristan Cano Tristan Cano Kathleen Broadhurst
Susan McKee Susan McKee Helena Wahlstrom
?
This could be you Shelley Seale Shelley Seale
Malea Ritz Malea Ritz

 

 

 

Like this on Facebook: