It was an extraordinary and delightful happening. Angus Gavin, lead architect at Solidere, provided insights into the master plan for the Central District archaeologist Hans Curvers illuminated Beirut’s rich, multilayered heritage alongside the challenges facing his teams while excavating and preserving ancient sites in a burgeoning, modern city. Held in the heart of down town, it afforded fourteen gifted students from six universities throughout Lebanon the opportunity to fully explore the city’s history as an overarching theme, whether in fiction, nonfiction or poetry. In 2011, a second workshop was hosted by Solidere, the Lebanese company charged with renovating and developing the Beirut Central District, and sponsored by English Speaking Union- Lebanon, in particular supported by its Chair Youmna Asseily. To my delight, a year later, he visited Beirut and together, with the support of Provost Ahmad Dallal, at the American University of Beirut, we organized a two-week workshop conducted by American novelist Claire Messud and poet Tom Sleigh. One evening in Casablanca I shared with Chris Merrill my dream of introducing gifted Lebanese students to professional creative writing workshops. It proved a challenging and thrilling experience-one that has forever altered the way I view workshops and writing.
The assignment was to write about my own city, Beirut, and later about the old cities of Fez and Casablanca. Some years ago the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa invited me to participate in a conference held in Morocco.
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