RIYADH, 11 October 2006 — Young male and female Saudi writers who participated in the British Council’s “I Belong” projects in December 2005 and March 2006 will see their works published in December this year.
“I am delighted that this project has been so successful and I very much look forward to the publication in December which will provide added recognition for the wonderful talent of these young people,” Jim Scarth, director, British Council Saudi Arabia, told Arab News.
As part of the project, which seeks to promote cultural understanding among the youth at the international level, 12 young women and seven young men participated in two separate five-day workshops held in Alkhobar under the guidance of two UK writers, Bernadine Evaristo and Matt Whyman.
They were shortlisted from more than 60 participants in a Kingdomwide competition. The young women’s workshop enlisted the cooperation of the well-known Saudi poet Nimah I. Nawwab. The writers helped the participants to express their thoughts clearly and to use creative writing techniques. Three stories from each workshop were selected for publication in the “I Belong” showcase website with writers from across the world.
The project brought together participants from Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt, France and Northern Ireland with the aim of developing mutual understanding between young people across a broad cultural spectrum.
Jim Scarth said the hugely successful workshops demonstrated the depth of talent among the Saudi youth whose works will be featured in the publication.
The project is part of British Council’s “Connecting Futures Initiative.” This is an international online chain story, to be created by 30 young writers from six countries with significant Muslim populations. Each writer will contribute a 2,000-word chapter on the theme of “belonging”. Each chapter will stand alone as a story, but will also link to the others.
The stories, he pointed out, were personal reflections on the theme of belonging to a family, a country, an organization. The authors wrote in a mixture of English and Arabic with the pieces written in Arabic being translated into English. The stories on the British Council website are printed in Arabic and English, he added.
