2011 Between the Lines

2011 saw the most diverse set of BTL participants to date, representing Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tunisia. In addition to their creative writing study in both English and Arabic, students took part in a variety of activities ranging from a discussion of the events of the "Arab Spring" to a tour of an authentic Mississippi River tugboat to a children's-bookmaking workshop hosted by youth nonprofit 826 Chicago. For most of them, this was their first visit to the States, and we did our best to make it memorable.

Egyptian poet Yasser Abdel-Latif at the Arabic creative writing workshop.

At Shambaugh House, students discuss the events of the “Arab Spring.”

Panel discussion on “Young Writers and Writing” at the Iowa City Book Festival.

Guest lecturer and Palestinian-American author Ibtisam Barakat leads a class.

Students discuss forms of Arabic and English poetry.

Late afternoon at Oak Street Beach, Chicago.

Students write and design children’s books at 826 Chicago.

The BTL class of 2011. Standing, left to right: Ghada Abdel Aal (chaperone, Egypt), Maha Zeidan (student, Israel), Roua Seghaier (student, Tunisia), Maisa Farid (student, Morocco), Yasser Abdel-Latif (faculty, Egypt/Canada), Lana Najjar (student, Israel), Kecia Lynn (IWP staff), Johnny Yaacoub (student, Lebanon), Abed El Yaacoub (student, Lebanon), Hind Rahmoun (student, Algeria), Khaled Khalifa (faculty, Syria), Mohammad AlHemaid (chaperone, Saudi Arabia). Kneeling, left to right: Sally AlHak (student, Egypt), Saria AlMidani (student, Syria), Hadeel AlHaddad (student, Bahrain), Oussama Ghajjou (student, Morocco).

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Excerpts from the forthcoming volume of poems Exhausted on the Cross by Najwan DARWISH, in Kareem James Abu-Zeid’s translation from the Arabic and superbly introduced, can be read at The Paris Review blog.
Read and watch a lovely remembrance of Marvin BELL, Iowa’s first Poet Laureate, devoted friend of IWP, a mensch.
One of the four 2020 Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Big Other magazine, recognizing “innovative writers who shape the conversation about literary art, about language, form, structure, style,” goes to the distinguished Chinese novelist Can Xue 残雪.
Fiction writer and journalist THAWDA Aye Lei forwards a call for solidarity and protest by 125 independent Myanma writers against the military’s overthrow on 2/1/21, of a democratically elected government and the subsequent massive detentions. A call for release of those detained and for a reinstatement of Myanmar's democratically elected government has also been issued by PEN International.
For her novel Liebe um Liebe, Dragica RAJČIĆ is among this year's recipients of the significant Schweitzer Literaturpreis.

2011 Between the Lines

Between the Lines

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