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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Happening Now

Etgar KERET (IWP ‘01) is among the thirty international storytellers commissioned for New York Times’ extravagantly designed “COVID Decameron” issue.
And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, the first English-language international pandemic anthology, features writing by IWP alumni Eavan BOLAND (’79), Eduardo HALFÓN (’11), Shenaz PATEL (’16) and Gábor SZÁNTÓ (’03), among many other colleagues.
The Atlas of Lost Beliefs, the 8th poetry volume of Ranjit HOSKOTE (IWP ‘ 95), a distinguished poet, essayist, translator, scholar, and curator based in Mumbai, has just come out from Arc Publications (UK).
In the Summer 2020 issue of World Literature Today, Gianni SKARAGAS (IWP '08) writes about returning home to Greece in the time of the pandemic to be "a son to his mother."
The Slovak poet Mila HAUGOVA (IWP '96) is the 2020 recipient of the distinguished Vilenica International Literary Award.

2011 Between the Lines

Between the Lines

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