This film, produced by the American Embassy in Beirut and aired a few years ago, features Between the Lines 2008 student Ali Awarke and contains pictures of the BTL 2008 participants. (Arabic audio, no subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1iO_DSDTfA

This year's Between the Lines (BTL) was our most ambitious yet.

Sadly I don't have time to write a longer post but for now I wanted to present the BTL class of 2009, as photographed by Tarek Eltayeb, one of their teachers. And yes, they are just as cool as they look.

Why the inaugural session of Between the Lines happened in Chicago rather than Iowa City.

Take some teenagers from the Middle East and bring them to Iowa for two weeks to study creative writing alongside American teenagers. That's Between the Lines in a nutshell. (Check out the site for details.)