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.”
Basketball break. 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.
Learning Arabic. 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

  • Kristian Sendon CORDERO (IWP '17) co-edited a special issue of Words Without Borders on writing in the Philippines. Its range of poetry in the country's many languages includes Filipino work of Genevieve ASENJO (IWP '12).

  • Muhamed "Nabo" ABDELNABI (Egypt, IWP '13) has been awarded France's 2019 Prix de la littérature arabe for his 2016 novel, published last year in the UK as In the Spider's Room .

  • Over on  Asymptote, in English and Cantonese, the long poem " The Man Who Lost HIs Shadow,"  by Hong Kong poet and editor Stuart LAU (IWP '17).

  • On fish-paste English and cheddar-English: a long interview at LARB (Los Angeles Review of Books) about language, politics, and language politics with Burmese poet and worker KO KO THETT (IWP '16).

  • Behind the 2018+ 2019 Nobel Prizes for Literature given to novelists Peter Handke  and Olga Tokarczuk are translators--one key among them Jennifer CROFT, novelist as well as translator from the Polish, Ukrainian, and  Spanish. Congratulations!

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