2009 Between the Lines

2009's Between the Lines was the first to take place on the University of Iowa campus. Twelve students from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Syria joined 76 Iowa Young Writers' Studio participants in our version of "summer camp" -- where writing and literature, not hikes and campfires, are the main focus. BTL students attended morning English-language seminars with their IYWS peers, and an afternoon Arabic-language creative writing workshop (led by teachers and IWP alumni Tarek Eltayeb and Iman Humaydan). They took time out for fun as well, visiting Adventureland (an amusement park) and a bowling alley, among other places.

The Stretch writing exercise starts each weekday.

Students experimented with different forms of creative writing at the Arabic-language workshop.

Showing off skills at the Arabic-language workshop.

BTL students shared their favorite Arabic-language authors with IYWS students.

In this Stretch exercise, students had to create sentences with words that were taped on their foreheads.

For several BTL students, this was their first time in a bowling alley.

It's not a photography mistake...this is what BTL students look like in the funhouse mirror at Adventureland.

BTL class of 2009. Standing, left to right: Iman Humaydan (faculty, Lebanon), Christopher Merrill (IWP director), Tarek Eltayeb (faculty, Austria), Zaid Al-Nassir (student, Jordan), Soumer Daghastani (chaperone, Syria), Bashar Al-Sawaftah (student, Jordan), Nael Roby (student, Israel), Ahmad Ezery (student, Israel), Majd Iwidat (student, Palestinian Authority), Bana Aassy (student, Israel). Kneeling/sitting, left to right: Basima Takrouri (chaperone, Palestinian Authority), Irene Ghattas (student, Palestinian Authority), Nadia Tellawi (chaperone, Jordan), Hussein Youneiss (student, Lebanon), Asma Abu Dahab (chaperone, Jordan), Lora Abaza (student, Syria), Nadia El Malt (student, Lebanon), Yara Abou Fakher (student, Syria), Iya Ghassib (student, Jordan).

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We mark the passing of one of IWP’s early participants, the Yugoslav/Macedonian poet, translator, editor, and co-organizer of the Struga Poetry Evenings, Bogomil GJUZEL.
The Octopus Has Three Hearts is the fiction debut of the imaginative poet and teacher, Vancouver-based Rachel ROSE.
Among the 2021-2 Cullman Fellows at the New York Public Library are Josephine ROWE, Madeleine THIEN and Lewis HYDE.
The story “Red_Bati” has landed Dilman DILA a spot on the British Science Fiction Association 2021 awards shortlist.
Hind SHOUFANI, the co-writer and editor of the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated short The Present, in which a Palestinian father and daughter try to cross Israeli checkpoints, speaks about the project here. On Netflix through April 2021.

2009 Between the Lines

Between the Lines

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