Kitabat Writing Residency | 2021

In the shadows of globalization, Yemeni artists' exchanges with the international world have seized to exist. Visa restrictions, Political conflicts, and recently COVID-19 have imposed many restrictions on the artists' abilities to be presented and connected to artists' communities around the globe. The political conflict in the country has produced similar restrictions. Movement between different geographical locations has become near impossible.

Supported by technology, Kitabat virtual writing residency offered Yemeni young writers the chance to learn, engage, and express their writing through mentoring by established Yemeni authors and trainers. The project aimed to utilize the abilities and voices of Young Yemeni artists by giving them the nurturing space to grow and think. Three Writers from Sanaa were coupled with three writers from Aden. For a period of three months, the writers developed literature pieces that included both cities through the eyes of the other person. 

In connecting writers between North and South Yemen, the residency has been able to bring writers from different geographical locations to exchange ideas and engage in conversations of different points of view. The e-book of the twelve short stories is only published in Arabic and can be downloaded here.