International authors practice craft in Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Boaz Gaon remembers the day an Israeli woman approached him after watching a play he had written.

She said the work led her to empathize with the Palestinians her country was at war with. But she would not let her son see the show. He was about to enter the Israeli army, she said, and she did not want him to be soft.

That was just one example of the way war and writing intersect in complex ways, Gaon told an audience at the Iowa City Book Festival on Oct. 3.

Gaon, from Israel, was joined on a panel discussion, 'Writing in a Country at War,” by writers from Afghanistan and Iraq.

They are part of a group of 29 writers spending the semester in the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. The program brings poets, playwrights, fiction and non-fiction writers from around the world each fall for residencies in Iowa City.

Since 1967, more than 1,400 writers from more than 140 countries have participated.

It's a chance for international writers to practice their craft in America's only UNESCO City of Literature. It's also a chance for a cultural exchange for both the writers and the Americans they interact with.

At the 'Writing in a Country at War” discussion, the audienceto hear directly from writers in the countries the United States has sent troops to.

'Writing, ladies and gentlemen, is a very complicated process, and writing from a war zone is the most complicated of all,” said Iraqi poet Sadek Mohammed.

Anyone who speaks out, who makes themselves known, is a target, he said, whether from the government or from insurgents.

'Writing becomes a threat that might reveal your camouflage,” he said.

A dean at the University of Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq in Baghdad, he recalled his students being killed and maimed by suicide bombers and listening to fighting in his street as he tucked his four-year-old child into bed. Last winter, he said, a bomb was planted in his countryside house. He survived because he stopped to buy cigarettes on the way home.

Mujib Mehrdad, a poet from Afghanistan, told the audience such realities deeply inform entire generations of writers and other artists. Even romantic literature, he said, becomes filled with violent imagery.

'We have been witness to the deaths of our family members and our childhood friends,” he said. 'When we leave our houses, we are not sure we'll return to our houses again.”

Mehrdad, Mohammed and Gaon, along with the other residents, will be in Iowa through mid-November. In addition to the Iowa City Book Festival and other cultural exchange activities, writers participate in weekly readings at the UI's Shambaugh House and Prairie Lights.

Hear from the writers

Writers participate in weekly readings at the UI's Shambaugh House and Prairie Lights. All events are free. Learn more about the program at iwp.uiowa.edu/

Cinematheque: 'Lost in the Mountains,” presented by Eun Heekyung (South Korea) and short films by visiting poet and filmmaker Ye Mimi (Taiwan)

' When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

' Where: E105 Adler Journalism Building, 104 W. Washington St., Iowa City

Cinematheque: 'The Sapphires,” presented by Ali Cobby Eckermann (Australia)

' When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28

' Where: E105 Adler Journalism Building, 104 W. Washington St., Iowa City

Shambaugh House reading series

' When: 5 p.m., Friday and Oct. 24 and 31

' Where: Shambaugh House, 430 N. Clinton St., Iowa City

Prairie Lights reading series

' When: 4 p.m., Oct. 19 and 26, Nov. 02

' Where: Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City