December Dates for the Creative Writing Course at Diwan Zamalek & Heliopolis

POSTPONED by 1 week: the Creative Course at Heliopolis is POSTPONED to Saturday 14th Dec at 7pm!! All details on the poster - but remember the date change Go into the store itself to book your place. See you all there

Rowayat - a New Literary Journal for Egypt

Rowayat www.rowayat.com is the new venture started by the wonderous and most courageous Sherine Elbanhawy that I am privileged to be part of as Editor in Chief.  Rowayat is a new literary journal for Egypt - markedly different as it is publishing work in English from Egyptian writers or those with a strong tie to Egypt.  

Please read the open letter below from us at Rowayat - and also make sure to follow our website and all other pages given there such as Facebook and Twitter.  Even more important; be watching out in January for the printed journal featuring both emerging and established writers!  Exciting!

Open Letter from Rowayat Team

Dearest Writers,

Firstly, thank you. Thank you for being who you are, for writing, for being committed to the Word, for allowing the poetry of life to be what you do. 

Hopefully you have been contacted by someone from Rowayat to submit, and spread the word. Rowayat is a dream of ours that is coming into existence. 

The first step of this dream, in this digital age, is online through our website www.rowayat.com

 

The primary function of our website is for students to enter the fiction competition, as well as highlighting the hybridity of writers from Egypt in the past, present, and future.

Rowayat, is a biannual new literary journal emerging from Egypt, for Egyptian writers writing in English and international writers living here. 

This is just the start, the first issue of the journal will be out Jan2014.

So welcome to Rowayat, join our dream, and help highlight writers emerging from Egypt.

We leave you with words from Ahdaf Soueif's, In the Eye of the Sun, “I haven't come to you only to take, I haven't come to you empty handed: I bring you poetry as great as yours but in another tongue, I bring you black eyes and golden skin and curly hair, I bring you Islam and Luxor and Alexandria and Lutes and tambourines and date-palms and silk rugs and sunshine and incense and voluptuous ways”.

Through Rowayat we hope people can breathe, see, and feel Egypt.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

The Rowayat Team

Samhain felucca with Poe, Rossetti & Frankenstein on the Nile

part Writers' Centre event and part personal joy taking - we took a felucca today 31st October, at dusk, and enjoyed some of the Gothic and Romance poems and writings of Poe, Mary Shelley and Rossetti. I bought bling skulls, candles and something with roses on it and before the felucca docked we wrote wishes and gave them to the Nile.

A Dream Within A Dream – Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem

 
But a dream within a dream?

Advanced Course in Creative Writing

THIS COURSE IS POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE


Advanced Creative Writing Course
with Linda Cleary

10 hour course in Advanced Creative Writing – LE 700
4 sessions of 2 ½ hours each
(Sundays 7pm to 9.30pm)

starting POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

at Mesaha Street

Dokki

(full address given after confirmation of place)

Places limited to 10 people

Course outline
This course is for those people who have completed the first course(s) with me

and for new students with demonstrated abilities.  

The course requires a creative aptitude, proven skills and commitment to producing assignments.

It is an intense 4 session course 

with further creative writing writing exercises and discussion

to strengthen description, atmosphere and imagery; 

we also work on several key topics each week such as contemporizing myth in writing, 

symbolism and surrealism, writing creative non fiction and 

strengthening editing skills by working on review and critique

 as well as discussion and individual work.

Prospective students must apply by email or via Facebook inbox

 and they will be notified if they are selected

 

Short Story Course at Diwan Zamalek

Please note that to register you must go to Diwan Zamelek store and give your name and payment in advance - as seats go quickly! *Diwan deal with ALL registration.

Short Story Course with Linda Cleary

For those who completed the 4 week Creative Writing course or who have proven writing skills.

This course focuses on work on character, voice, atmosphere, plot and building story and we continue with further creative writing expansion techniques.

We also read published short stories for discussion and understanding format, focusing on the necessary elements for each student to produce a final draft of a 1000 word narrative.

4 weeks (8 hr course)

once a week on Mondays starting 28th October

from 7.30pm to 9.30pm

at Diwan Zamalek

Price 540 LE

Limited number (10 students maximum only) – please register in advance

Age group: for adults (17 yrs +)

Info on Linda Cleary:

http://www.writerscentre.blogspot.com

http://lindaclearypoetry.blogspot.com

http://www.soundcloud.com/lindacleary

http://www.youtube.com/lindawildfire

Creative Writing Courses at Diwan in October and November

Please note that to register you must go to the Diwan store you wish to take the course in and give your name and payment in advance - as seats go quickly! *Diwan deal with ALL registration.

Creative Writing Course with Linda Cleary

The Creative Writing course acts as an extended masterclass looking at various techniques and exercises to open up and improve writing skills, work with metaphor and imagery, create texts and narratives to given themes and word counts as well as free writing.

There is no criteria other than a willingness to open up one's writing; the course is designed that people of varying writing experience can participate and each draw their individual benefits.

4 weeks (8 hr course)

once a week on Tuesdays starting 29th October

from 7.30pm to 9.30pm

at Diwan Zamalek

and

4 weeks (8 hr course)

once a week on Saturdays starting 2^nd November

from 7pm to 9pm

at Diwan Heliopolis

Price 540 LE

Limited number – please register in advance

Age group: for adults (17 yrs +)

Info on Linda Cleary:

http://www.writerscentre.blogspot.com

http://lindaclearypoetry.blogspot.com

http://www.soundcloud.com/lindacleary

http://www.youtube.com/lindawildfire

Literary Salon on the Nile - Autumn Equinox

Today myself and 5 writers took a felucca on the Nile for a literary salon on water. We took a journey from Zamalek to Downtown, around the Sofitel and Four Seasons then back up to Zamalek. All in all one hour cruising whilst we shared narratives, poems, inspirations and ideas. It was a beautiful time! :)

Today was also International Peace Day and Autumn Equinox :)

For anyone interested, it's a public event for any writer or a person interested in the literary arts. We are limited to maybe 12 people for comfortable capacity, that's all, but it's a lovely thing to do. Check with the Writers' Centre FB page for all updates https://www.facebook.com/groups/374437262578364/