Overview
Between the Lines conducted two sessions in the summer of 2017, bringing together groups of young artists to focus on creative writing and literature, while exploring histories, cultures, languages, and what identity means to them.
In 2017, Between the Lines brought together 22 students and three adult chaperones from Russia and the NEA region, and 14 young Americans. Participants attended seminars and workshop courses designed to increase awareness of world literatures and improve their writing craft. Classes were led by prize-winning poets and prose writers. Weekend events and nightly activities allowed students to deepen their understanding of each other’s cultures through specialized creative exploration. Events included bookmaking, slam poetry, open mic night, literary translation, and a group trip to Lake Macbride State Park. We asked a great deal of these 39 young writers, and they exceeded expectations at every turn. Over the course of two weeks in Iowa City, their shared experiences yielded global-minded understanding, and lifelong bonds.
In addition to BTL Russia Arabic, a special session occurred, bringing together 11 students from different Muslim and largely immigrant populated communities from 7 states including: Michigan, New York, Louisiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Ohio. Participants spent mornings in literature courses and special seminars and afternoons in creative writing workshops with their faculty member. Events included a guided Text & Context discussion about identity, digital storytelling, slam poetry, and a movement workshop. Through each activity and workshop, the participants learned what it meant to dismantle assumptions and stereotypes by creatively engaging and working with each other. For just one week, students exchanged creative work, deep discussions, and pure curiosity that made this special program a magical one.
2017 Session Dates & Anthologies
- BTL Russia Arabic: July 1 – July 15, 2017. Read the Anthology.
- BTL Identity & Belonging: July 22 – July 29, 2017
Meet the Instructors
Karim Alrawi
Karim ALRAWI (playwright, fiction writer; Canada/UK/Egypt) writes stage plays in both Arabic and English. He is also the author of several radio and TV plays, and children’s books. He was resident writer at the Royal Court Theatre and the Theatre Royal Stratford East (England), has held writing residencies in the US and Canada, and teaching positions at universities in all three countries. His national and international honors include the John Whiting Award and the Samuel Becket Award. Karim participates courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Arts Council of British Columbia. (IWP Fall Resident '13, BTL Faculty '15, '16, '17).
Alisa Ganieva
Alisa GANIEVA Алиса Ганиева (fiction writer, editor, critic, journalist; Russia) is the author of three books, including the novels Жених и невеста (2015), shortlisted for the Russian Booker, which appeared in English as Bride and Groom, and Праздничная гора (2012) shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana literary prize (the English version is The Mountain and the Wall ). Her story collection Салам тебе, Далгат! [Salaam, Dalgat!] won the 2009 Debut Prize, to controversy and acclaim. In 2017, Ganieva was a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. (IWP Fall Resident both in 2012 and 2018, BTL Faculty '15, '16, '17)
Mary Hickman
Mary Hickman was born in Idaho and grew up in China and Taiwan. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. Hickman is the author of two books of poems, This Is the Homeland (Ahsahta Press, 2015) and Rayfish (Omnidawn Publishing, 2017), which won the James Laughlin Award, given by the Academy of American Poets and chosen by Ellen Bass, Jericho Brown, and Carmen Giménez Smith. An assistant professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, she also teaches in (and loves!) the University of Iowa International Writing Program’s Between the Lines exchange program. (BTL Faculty ’15, ’16, ’17, ’20, ’21, 22 U.S.)