Saturday, April 15, 2006

Life is a Song

It was brilliant.

The talk at the Muharraq Secondary School for Girls couldn’t have gone any better. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once I got settled in, things flowed and I’m thankful that the response I got was very positive.

I started off by reading my award-nominated short story, The Purple Rose, and then spoke about my writing background and experience, including QuixotiQ, from how it started, to how it got published.

I’ve never been inside a school since I graduated from high school 10 years ago. I used to be sitting on the other side of the desk, on the receiving end. But there was no need for me to be nervous or anxious. Both teachers and students (about 50 of them) were pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

The interaction during the Q&A session though was the most rewarding. I was impressed by some of these students and the fact that they seemed to have an interest in literature and writing. Afterwards teachers and students huddled around to get their copies signed and take photos and to chat.

So thanks to specifically Naeema for putting this together, and for students Sarah and Latifa, for helping out and looking after me (and for the lovely ‘purple’ rose they handed me at the end), and everyone else who had attended.

All in all, a wonderful experience that I’m more than happy to repeat in the near future.

In fact, I will be back at the same school this coming Tuesday for a screening of the Models of Success film. The screening will be followed by an open discussion with writer/director/producer Art Jones and myself.

2 comments:

Um Naief said...

It's really good to hear that all went well. The purple rose they gave you was really nice.

Good luck w/ the screening. I'm interested to hear how it goes.

Ali Al Saeed said...

Thanks tooners. The screening went well too and the students were brilliant.

es, you can use the general email webmaster@alialsaeed.com

thanks for stopping by