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.

BTL and IYWS students at orientation. 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.
Shooting hoops at sunset. 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).

Happening Now

  • To mark PEN International’s centennial, Words Without Borders has published a sampler of works by writers committed to freedom of expression. Algerian novelist and scholar Med MAGANI is among them.

  • A fall harvest of book reviews coming in: of The Others by Sarah BLAU (translated from the Hebrew by Daniella Zamir); of LO Yi-Chin’s Farewell, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy TIANG; of Véronique TADJO’s In the Company of Men…

  • A fascinating interview with IWP’s Senior Advisor, professor Peter Nazareth, retired from UI’s English Department in spring 2021, after nearly five decades of teaching.

  • Word reaches us that poet HU Xudong  胡续冬, who also taught comparative and world literatures at Peking University (Beida), specializing in Latin American literatures, passed away unexpectedly. RIP, Hu Xudong…

  • We note with sadness the passing of Hiroshi SAKAGAMI 坂上 弘, whose long novelistic career garnered him major literary and cultural honors. A former president of the Japan Writers’ Association, he was until his retirement also the director of Keio University Press.

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