The video interview was recently released on YouTube :. On the Map: The best thing and worst thing about being a writer in your country? Sawsan al-Areeqe: I cannot say either a best or worst, because writers develop a state of alientation from their environment. At the beginning of hteir writing career. As a writer, I learn to reprogram my relationship with my society according to my own views and feelings.
Regardless of the place I inhabit. However, the best thing about being a poet in my own society is that poetry is highly respected. The worst, which did not happen to me, is the fact that my society judges poetic texts according to a religious perspective. SA: Writing is the only option in Yemen that allows me to survive.
If we had a music institute, maybe I would have become a pianist or a ballerina, had there been any schools that did thisβ¦art. But there are no other options in Yemen. Writing gives me the opportunity to paint my own life and to live my life, with the minute details and specific pains.
And there is absolutely no amount of fluid that can diminish my thirst for creativity and challenge. SA: I recommend Black Taste, Black Odor , a novel by the Yemeni writer Ali al-Muqri because it opened the door for a new type of literature that sheds light on marginalized groups in Yemen. This means that the literature in Yemen begins to focus on particular issues, like the dark-skinned servants whose lives resemble the gypsies in Europe.
For example, I read poetry, and then watch some movies, and then sometimes I even re-read old novels, because I enjoy re-discovering their details. OTM: Should the State give financial support to writers, or to literature? In other words, we need professional institutions and publishing houses that market books.
