International authors to read at Kirkwood

Three distinguished international authors will bring readings from their home countries to Kirkwood Community College this week. The authors, two from the Middle East and one from Africa, come to Iowa as a part of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program (IWP).

Each year Kirkwood hosts authors from the IWP for readings on campus. This year's reading will be Thursday, October 25, at 11 a.m. in 234 Cedar Hall. The program is free and open to the public.

TJ Dema, a poet and editor from Botswana, is the former chair of the Writers' Association of Botswana. She focuses a lot on the spoken word. Dema is a member of the Sonic Slam Chorus and runs Sauti Arts and Performance Management. She produced a multilingual CD, “Dreaming is a Gift for Me,” featuring 12 poets from Botswana.

Gulala Nouri works for the High Commission of Erbil Citadel Revitalization in Kurdistan. Originally from Iraq, Nouri is a poet and fiction writer, as well as a teacher of the Kurdish-language, women's issues and human rights. Nouri published four poetry collections from 1999-2009. She currently has two books in process, a translation of stories on the Halabja massacre and her first story collection.

Mohib Zegham is the author of two short story collections, three children's books and two novels. He is a practicing cardiologist in Kabul, Afghanistan. The translator and fiction writer regularly translates medical articles, psychology works and children's literature. Zegham is the editor of a cultural magazine and directs a children's book publishing house.

The International Writing Program is a unique conduit for the world's literatures, connecting well-established writers from around the globe, bringing international literature into classrooms, introducing American writers to other cultures through reading tours, and serving as a clearinghouse for literary news and a wealth of archival and pedagogical materials.