Writers’ “Reading Room”
Central to the vision of the Palestine Writing Workshop is a dedication to community–a vision to create and sustain artistic possibilities and landscapes. In order to develop a community of creative writers in Palestine, the Workshop reaches beyond trainings, constructing a necessary space where creative performance and inspiration can flourish. We’ll be located in a historic building in the village of Birzeit. Part of this space will feature the Writers’ Reading Room. Like a library, the Reading Room will offer a comfortable environment with cozy furniture and wooden bookshelves where emerging writers can sit with a cup of tea and a book. By surrounding themselves with great literary works, the Writers’ Reading Room will assist in the transfer of inspiration derived from the atmosphere of the room into their own work.
In order to fill the shelves of the Reading Room, the Workshop needs literary texts, particularly contemporary models for writing. In a country, or rather region of the world where piracy is the primary method of accessing written knowledge, and of which a core value of the Workshop challenges, we aim to respect and engage texts, and never use or buy photocopies of the originals. However, with little access to original books, this goal remains highly challenging. Thanks to the British Council and our parterns in the States, who ship the texts to Palestine and deliver them to the Workshop, and thanks to Publishers that wish to support our efforts and bring us access to literature and ideas that allow us to train and inspire writers—we are beginning to build our space: our Reading Room. We hope other Publishers will also support our efforts and donate between 1 and 10 copies of various texts from which these young writers would benefit. The reason we seek more than 1 copy is because class sizes are limited to 10 students, and thus the books can be utilized in courses and book clubs. We hope you will help us not only change young people’s relationship to reading and writing, but to create an atmosphere of knowledge and inspiration for young writers—an atmosphere that will help us change our world, by changing theirs.
