Deadline: July 5, 2017
The Olive Writers Camp is a six-day-long creative writing program for young Moroccan writers, of which 65 percent are female participants. The Olive Writers program aims to hone participants’ skills as creative writers while also putting them in contact with influential writers who will serve as mentors to them, providing wider exposure for their creative work, introducing them to the publishing world, and providing them access to national and international support networks of fellow young writers.
The program will take place between the August 18-23, 2017 at the American Language Center of Casablanca (lodging in a hotel nearby). During the program, the participants will attend seminars on Arabic and American literature and daily bilingual creative writing workshops held in both English and Arabic. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to attend intensive workshops in literary translation and journalism. This programming will allow participants to revise and refine a creative project and to delve deeply into questions of craft and theory. The morning creative writing workshops will be available in both Arabic and English, and the remaining courses and lectures will be in either of the two languages.
Cost
- ‘The Olive Writers’ is a fully-funded program. Local travel, accommodation, meals, and all the other expenses related to the program are covered.
Eligibility
- Open to young Moroccan writers between the ages of 16-21.
Application Requirements
- Application form;
- 4-7 pages of fiction and/or poetry written in either Arabic or English. The participants have to submit samples in the language of the main writing workshop they are applying for;
- Writing assignment: Include 2-5 pages in response to the following: Family, friends, region, tribe, religious denomination, ethnic groups, class, gender, race, work, neighborhood, country, political parties—in our daily lives we navigate between different markers, adjusting our speech patterns and behavior to the demands of each encounter, narrating to ourselves stories about how and why we come to occupy a particular place in the scheme of things. What do you consider to be the strongest, most central aspects of your identity? What does it mean to you to be a member (or be seen as a member) of particular identity groups? In what way does your identity influence your creative writing?
- A statement of purpose (250 words maximum, in English or Arabic) describing why creative writing is important in your life, and what you hope to learn at the program.
Application Process
- Submit your online application
- Email the application materials (Writing sample, Writing assignment, Statement of purpose) in one document, in Microsoft Word format sent as an attachment to [email protected] (not in the body email), clearly labeled in the subject: Full Name of the participant-city;
- All applications must be received by July 5, 2017 midnight, Moroccan Time;
- If you write in other languages too, send a sample in your application email, as an attachment in a separate document;
- All entries will be checked automatically for plagiarism. Entries found to be plagiarized will be disqualified without notification to the writer;
- If you don’t meet the criteria for this program ( age restriction for instance), send an email to [email protected] where you explain your situation, and attach a sample of your writing. They will see what we can do then.
For more information, visit the Facebook Page of Olive Writers Camp.
