0:00:17.697,0:00:19.084
(Arabic) Peace be upon you.

0:00:19.084,0:00:20.865
(Audience) (Arabic)[br]Peace be upon you.

0:00:21.946,0:00:26.809
I was 17 when I finally[br]came back to Libya for good.

0:00:30.197,0:00:32.116
Growing up in Switzerland,

0:00:32.116,0:00:36.586
I believe the worst thing[br]that I found really challenging as a kid

0:00:36.586,0:00:41.025
was how to spell the word "Switzerland."

0:00:46.052,0:00:50.046
Even now, decades later,[br]as an assistant lecturer,

0:00:50.046,0:00:53.047
I still despise writing that word.

0:00:53.687,0:00:57.808
On my phone, I entered[br]this word in shortcuts,

0:00:59.158,0:01:05.245
using the English transliteration[br]of "Sweesra," which is the Arabic version,

0:01:05.245,0:01:08.052
and it would automatically[br]write it for me,

0:01:08.052,0:01:10.957
so thank goodness for technology.

0:01:12.147,0:01:15.816
There's so many daunting words[br]in almost all languages,

0:01:15.816,0:01:20.756
either because of their spelling[br]or because of their meaning per se,

0:01:20.756,0:01:26.466
but still, that's not an excuse[br]for us to not learn them.

0:01:32.478,0:01:34.686
Life is a school, they say,

0:01:35.156,0:01:36.816
and there are various elements

0:01:36.816,0:01:40.356
that contribute[br]to the formation of knowledge.

0:01:40.726,0:01:45.096
Early on in life, we learn[br]initially from our parents,

0:01:45.096,0:01:49.306
but for certain mundane reasons,[br]they just can't give it all.

0:01:49.306,0:01:51.727
And that's perhaps[br]why we need to go to school -

0:01:51.727,0:01:57.657
in order to learn from other individuals[br]who specialize in this field or that.

0:01:58.587,0:02:02.312
Therefore, our language skills[br]are established

0:02:04.412,0:02:09.346
by means of absorbing the words[br]that float out of coarse materials

0:02:09.346,0:02:11.946
and the mouths of our teachers.

0:02:15.136,0:02:16.765
With words we speak,

0:02:16.765,0:02:22.076
and through speaking, we express ourselves[br]and communicate with each other.

0:02:22.076,0:02:25.327
But not all of us are gifted speakers.

0:02:25.327,0:02:28.507
I for one am not an outspoken person,

0:02:28.507,0:02:34.526
especially when it comes to expressing[br]my inner thoughts and true emotions.

0:02:35.686,0:02:41.007
As a child, I was a very shy person,[br]especially with strangers,

0:02:41.007,0:02:45.646
and no sooner, I found comfort in writing.

0:02:45.966,0:02:51.475
In junior high school, I wrote[br]a short composition about my childhood,

0:02:51.475,0:02:53.547
and at the end of that day,

0:02:53.547,0:02:59.137
I discovered that my teacher actually read[br]that piece to almost half the school.

0:03:00.256,0:03:01.686
He later on told me

0:03:01.686,0:03:06.238
that my career would definitely[br]have something to do with writing,

0:03:06.388,0:03:11.197
and even at that time,[br]I had a pretty good feeling that it would.

0:03:13.247,0:03:19.917
In high school is when I actually started[br]to read full-length novels.

0:03:20.347,0:03:25.665
My first classic novel[br]was written by Louisa May Alcott,

0:03:25.665,0:03:27.156
"Little Women,"

0:03:27.156,0:03:32.676
followed by contemporary works,[br]namely Mills & Boon's.

0:03:34.060,0:03:38.076
When I was 14, [br]I was obsessed by comic books,

0:03:38.076,0:03:41.149
like almost any other teenager.

0:03:42.239,0:03:44.726
I used to read Nabil Farouk.

0:03:44.726,0:03:51.098
He's the writer of "Adham Sabri:[br]The Man of the Impossible."

0:03:51.997,0:03:56.108
I also used to read the Archie comics.

0:03:57.446,0:04:02.886
I was inspired by the character[br]of Betty Cooper to write diary entries,

0:04:02.886,0:04:05.406
and I still do so till now.

0:04:05.406,0:04:07.087
When I started college,

0:04:07.087,0:04:12.255
I discovered that there was a sort[br]of lacking in my writing techniques,

0:04:13.215,0:04:17.525
namely in organization,

0:04:17.795,0:04:21.126
sentence structure and also focus.

0:04:21.836,0:04:27.457
Now at that point,[br]I thought I had been an avid reader,

0:04:27.457,0:04:30.855
and that shouldn't be a problem for me.

0:04:30.855,0:04:37.518
But that actually urged me[br]to change my approach towards reading.

0:04:37.947,0:04:40.896
I started reading as a student,

0:04:41.556,0:04:44.576
which means not just reading for pleasure

0:04:44.576,0:04:50.088
but also learning the tricks[br]of the trade from the masters.

0:04:56.977,0:05:01.716
With further motivation[br]by my late colleague and mentor,

0:05:01.716,0:05:05.485
Mrs. Sabah Kareem - God bless her soul -

0:05:05.485,0:05:09.936
I decided to do[br]my masters degree in writing,

0:05:09.936,0:05:12.915
and by the end of 2010,

0:05:12.915,0:05:18.266
I received my degree in writing[br]for performance and publication

0:05:18.266,0:05:20.958
from Leeds University.

0:05:21.726,0:05:23.806
I had the greatest chance there

0:05:23.806,0:05:29.188
of exploring my ability[br]in writing short stories

0:05:29.188,0:05:32.508
as well as writing for stage and screen.

0:05:34.598,0:05:38.368
Creative writing honors imagination,

0:05:38.368,0:05:43.215
so why does it seem[br]like a secluded area or zone

0:05:43.215,0:05:45.405
that we hardly delve into

0:05:45.405,0:05:51.147
in order to give it the space[br]to thrive and to flourish?

0:05:51.906,0:05:57.646
Allow me now to talk about my experience[br]teaching creative writing here, in Libya.

0:05:58.086,0:06:00.458
And I say Libya as a whole

0:06:00.458,0:06:02.554
because I believe

0:06:02.554,0:06:08.083
this is an issue that prevails[br]in almost all regions here in Libya:

0:06:08.083,0:06:13.657
the problem of learning[br]a foreign language and actually using it.

0:06:16.437,0:06:18.636
In early 2010,

0:06:20.096,0:06:22.436
shortly after I came back from the UK,

0:06:22.436,0:06:27.927
I introduced creative writing[br]for the first time in Misurata University.

0:06:28.357,0:06:31.458
I was so excited about the whole thing,

0:06:32.478,0:06:35.059
but apparently, the students weren't.

0:06:36.059,0:06:40.557
Only one student[br]enrolled for that semester.

0:06:41.498,0:06:45.006
And therefore the course[br]had to be canceled.

0:06:46.517,0:06:49.246
But the next semester was quite promising;

0:06:49.246,0:06:52.715
I had 11 students - not bad -

0:06:52.965,0:06:54.588
followed by 50,

0:06:54.588,0:06:58.517
and then a whopping 80 at one semester.

0:06:58.957,0:07:04.298
Now, for creative writing,[br]the number of students can be problematic,

0:07:04.298,0:07:10.067
especially if they are crammed[br]in a classroom of 35 students or so.

0:07:10.877,0:07:15.067
The real difficulty, however,[br]is when you realize

0:07:15.067,0:07:17.578
that they actually don't get it.

0:07:18.208,0:07:19.897
So how's that?

0:07:20.887,0:07:25.037
Regardless of the many occasions[br]in which they come to me

0:07:25.037,0:07:28.826
quite frankly and say, "We hate writing."

0:07:29.316,0:07:35.127
I believe the dominant reasons[br]behind this hatred, in their opinion,

0:07:35.127,0:07:40.217
is because "I don't know how to write,"

0:07:40.217,0:07:44.867
and "Why should I? I don't have to."

0:07:47.598,0:07:52.049
So "How do I write?"[br]versus "Why should I write?"

0:07:52.359,0:07:57.998
Now, with regards to the first question,[br]I will not touch upon illiteracy,

0:07:57.998,0:07:59.679
because definitely,

0:07:59.679,0:08:04.947
anybody who has been through[br]a considerable amount of schooling

0:08:04.947,0:08:08.554
would definitely know[br]how to put pen to paper.

0:08:09.557,0:08:14.947
With creative writing,[br]I am dealing with writing short stories.

0:08:15.348,0:08:19.688
And for that, you will need[br]to come up with ideas.

0:08:19.688,0:08:23.477
Normally, ideas come from inspiration,

0:08:25.197,0:08:30.918
and the thing that seems to hinder[br]my students is limited muse.

0:08:34.888,0:08:39.206
They have confined, or limited, themselves

0:08:39.206,0:08:45.867
into a very limited, basically,

0:08:45.867,0:08:49.449
range of topics and themes,

0:08:49.449,0:08:54.588
let alone a list of inadequate[br]words to choose from.

0:08:55.298,0:08:56.932
Now, personally,

0:08:56.932,0:09:02.727
I'm not very talented[br]in creating or conducting surveys,

0:09:02.727,0:09:09.168
but according to my experience[br]teaching creative writing for three years,

0:09:10.458,0:09:16.428
I believe the dominant topics and themes[br]that I have come across are as follows:

0:09:17.748,0:09:19.778
So we have five columns.

0:09:20.976,0:09:22.807
We'll start with poverty,

0:09:23.978,0:09:28.887
poverty as a means[br]to actually lead the main character

0:09:28.887,0:09:31.677
to take up jobs that are quite demeaning.

0:09:31.677,0:09:35.453
For example, he has to cook in a kitchen,

0:09:35.613,0:09:37.979
or he has to be a house cleaner,

0:09:38.269,0:09:41.228
or maybe he becomes a thug.

0:09:41.748,0:09:42.829
The second one -

0:09:42.829,0:09:45.658
which is quite popular[br]by the girls, by the way -

0:09:46.218,0:09:47.498
marriage.

0:09:47.858,0:09:52.247
The main character[br]has to leave the one she loves

0:09:52.247,0:09:55.528
in order to, you know, marry someone else

0:09:55.528,0:10:01.539
who is either richer or has some kind[br]of higher influence in society.

0:10:02.550,0:10:05.246
Cancer seems to be the winning ailment

0:10:05.246,0:10:07.509
whenever there is a chance

0:10:07.509,0:10:11.767
for them to talk about someone[br]who gets ill and later on dies.

0:10:11.767,0:10:18.067
So this is the easiest way,[br]the easiest route, towards death.

0:10:18.759,0:10:20.569
And then car accident.

0:10:21.327,0:10:23.061
This is quite surprising to me

0:10:23.061,0:10:26.276
because every time[br]they want to kill the parents,

0:10:26.276,0:10:30.108
they have them killed in a car accident.

0:10:31.819,0:10:35.734
Social disputes are namely inheritance,

0:10:35.734,0:10:38.180
the ever-evil uncle

0:10:38.610,0:10:42.226
and the love triangles[br]that happen at school.

0:10:44.629,0:10:48.967
Now, some of you might think[br]that this is actually fine

0:10:48.967,0:10:51.168
given the students' background.

0:10:51.498,0:10:52.889
It actually is fine

0:10:52.889,0:10:58.141
because people tend to write[br]about things that they know truly well.

0:10:58.141,0:11:03.734
But the problem is when they write[br]about things or stories

0:11:03.747,0:11:07.697
they believe is what other people[br]expect from them.

0:11:07.697,0:11:10.229
This is where the limitation lies.

0:11:12.128,0:11:15.702
Now, imagine, if we go back to this box,

0:11:15.702,0:11:22.320
imagine this is the structure[br]of our culture - these five columns -

0:11:22.320,0:11:24.349
incredibly limited,

0:11:24.349,0:11:27.148
and at the same time,[br]it really gets tiring

0:11:27.148,0:11:29.708
when you're subject to it every semester.

0:11:30.310,0:11:35.056
There was this one semester[br]when I firmly announced to my students,

0:11:35.056,0:11:38.307
"Please don't kill the parents[br]in a car accident.

0:11:38.797,0:11:44.460
If you don't want them in the story,[br]then just keep them home, safe and sound,

0:11:44.850,0:11:48.719
and then move on[br]to something worthy of telling."

0:11:52.627,0:11:58.070
We need to think[br]outside this cultural box.

0:11:58.280,0:12:00.879
A foreign colleague of mine once said,

0:12:00.879,0:12:05.988
"We're dealing with students[br]who haven't really experienced life."

0:12:05.988,0:12:07.590
And he was right.

0:12:07.900,0:12:11.058
How can we expect creativity from students

0:12:11.778,0:12:18.218
whose experience range is probably[br]three out of five of these columns?

0:12:23.779,0:12:28.498
That is when we need[br]to put a book in one's hand.

0:12:28.738,0:12:32.749
Reading not only makes you[br]become a better writer:

0:12:32.749,0:12:36.220
Through living the lives[br]of fictitious characters,

0:12:36.670,0:12:41.139
we learn from how they deal[br]with abnormal circumstances

0:12:41.139,0:12:44.189
and learn from their mishaps.

0:12:45.179,0:12:49.779
We also delve into the various[br]cultures of life, of the world,

0:12:50.219,0:12:52.097
and there's our free ticket:

0:12:52.097,0:12:55.420
we have successfully broadened our minds,

0:12:55.420,0:13:00.366
and we're practically ready[br]for the extraordinary.

0:13:05.609,0:13:09.130
So if we go back to this box

0:13:09.130,0:13:13.838
and imagine that we have students

0:13:13.838,0:13:19.910
who have read books that actually relate[br]to these topics and themes,

0:13:20.320,0:13:21.714
What are the possibilities,

0:13:21.714,0:13:27.556
what are the creative possibilities[br]that they will be able to present?

0:13:29.139,0:13:35.530
So here we have the five topics[br]that I mentioned earlier,

0:13:35.910,0:13:40.228
the five things that seem to be on repeat,

0:13:40.228,0:13:45.898
and examples of novels[br]that deal with these themes.

0:13:46.288,0:13:51.738
"The Hunger Games" is a very good example[br]that talks about poverty,

0:13:51.738,0:13:53.239
by Suzanne Collins.

0:13:53.239,0:13:58.569
The main character[br]is forced to enter a tournament

0:13:58.569,0:14:02.761
where contestants actually[br]kill each other in order to win.

0:14:03.521,0:14:05.079
There's an idea.

0:14:05.448,0:14:06.510
The second one,

0:14:06.510,0:14:09.388
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen.

0:14:09.388,0:14:14.821
Now, this is a novel that's been written[br]almost 200 years ago,

0:14:15.389,0:14:17.000
two centuries ago.

0:14:18.209,0:14:24.120
The thing that makes it long lasting[br]and still alive is because -

0:14:24.120,0:14:28.078
I mean for this specific[br]topic of marriage -

0:14:28.078,0:14:31.451
is because the main character,[br]Elizabeth Bennet,

0:14:31.451,0:14:34.769
actually opposed social code.

0:14:35.279,0:14:38.539
Imagine that happening back then.

0:14:39.741,0:14:41.573
"My Sister's Keeper"

0:14:41.573,0:14:47.016
has brilliant issues[br]or cases of health issues,

0:14:47.346,0:14:49.059
by Jodi Picoult.

0:14:49.059,0:14:53.228
We have more than one, which is cancer.

0:14:53.228,0:14:58.063
We have acute promyelocytic leukemia,

0:14:58.063,0:15:02.899
which is blood and bone marrow cancer.

0:15:02.899,0:15:09.230
We also have drug abuse in this novel[br]and a case of epilepsy.

0:15:11.809,0:15:16.370
I will not comment on the car accident:[br]please don't kill the parents.

0:15:16.799,0:15:19.468
So, moving on to social[br]disputes, the last one,

0:15:19.468,0:15:24.247
"In the Country of Men,"[br]written by our very own Hisham Matar.

0:15:24.657,0:15:29.827
Here we have a story about political chaos

0:15:29.827,0:15:36.078
that actually affected a domestic life

0:15:37.218,0:15:42.048
as a result to what was going on[br]here in Libya back in the '70s.

0:15:46.688,0:15:49.189
So, before I move on,

0:15:49.189,0:15:54.378
I'd like to quickly acknowledge[br]some of the previous works of my students

0:15:54.868,0:16:00.230
who have been able to come up[br]with extremely creative stories.

0:16:00.440,0:16:07.008
One student wrote a story[br]about an American who converted to Islam

0:16:07.008,0:16:12.410
after living among a group[br]of Tuaregs here in Libya.

0:16:12.410,0:16:16.665
A second good example is -[br]one of the students wrote about

0:16:16.665,0:16:23.099
the struggle of a man who's trying to flee[br]the Rwandan Civil War in the early '90s.

0:16:24.600,0:16:27.249
The third example[br]I'd like to present to you

0:16:27.249,0:16:32.930
is about a creature[br]who's created from mist,

0:16:33.440,0:16:36.170
and he's the last of his kind

0:16:36.170,0:16:41.298
and the only one who's able[br]to stand in the face of evil.

0:16:42.299,0:16:46.719
This was written by the translator[br]that's translating to you, by the way.

0:16:51.007,0:16:54.040
So, going back to those two questions.

0:16:54.860,0:16:56.959
How do I write[br]now that we've read,

0:16:56.959,0:17:00.089
now that we've broadened our minds?

0:17:00.669,0:17:01.918
Well, of course,

0:17:01.918,0:17:07.348
you need to start reading books[br]that might be of interest to you

0:17:07.348,0:17:10.220
and for authors who are actually -

0:17:11.500,0:17:14.499
whose style of writing[br]you find interesting.

0:17:15.549,0:17:19.089
And then you start putting pen to paper.

0:17:19.659,0:17:20.818
You scribble.

0:17:20.858,0:17:22.019
You draft.

0:17:22.089,0:17:24.809
You redraft, maybe 100 times.

0:17:24.809,0:17:26.260
And then you're done.

0:17:26.929,0:17:29.220
The second question - why should I?

0:17:29.220,0:17:31.419
Well, actually you don't have to write

0:17:31.639,0:17:33.278
unless you're one of my students -

0:17:33.278,0:17:35.058
then you just have to do it.

0:17:38.839,0:17:41.519
Storytelling is an art;

0:17:41.909,0:17:45.340
it allows you to translate[br]your inner thoughts

0:17:45.340,0:17:48.360
and perhaps your philosophy in life.

0:17:49.129,0:17:53.190
And that's actually why[br]people enjoy reading.

0:17:53.190,0:17:56.529
There's a literature[br]that needs to be conveyed

0:17:56.529,0:18:00.829
for generations to coexist and intertwine.

0:18:01.568,0:18:06.762
I'd like to conclude[br]with a quote by Elif Shafak,

0:18:07.369,0:18:09.979
the author of "The Forty Rules of Love."

0:18:17.099,0:18:18.221
Okay.

0:18:18.500,0:18:23.960
"Isn't connecting people to distant lands[br]and countries and cultures

0:18:23.960,0:18:27.640
one of the great strengths[br]of good literature?"

0:18:28.130,0:18:29.685
Indeed, it is.

0:18:30.305,0:18:33.160
So let's start thinking outside that box.

0:18:33.580,0:18:35.020
Thank you.

0:18:35.020,0:18:36.619
(Applause)