It All Started in Iowa

Who would have thought Iowa could have made a family of young adults from nine different countries?

Hi there! My name is Naomi Margolis and I am so pleased to be writing the official first post of the "Once Upon a Time in Iowa" Blog. We are a group of writers, of poetry and prose, who all met during the Between the Lines program at the Iowa International Writing Program during the summer of 2024. We come from the United States, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Cameroon, and Slovakia. 

While in Iowa, we all lived together in Catlett Hall at the University of Iowa, attending writing seminars and workshops for two weeks. Some highlights were staying up late watching fireworks, impromptu and surprise birthday parties, Target sprees, bowling games, being late to class, watching Wes Anderson, pulling all-nighters, and crying uncontrollably at the end. We are the proud students/mentees of Jose Olivarez and Mansoura Ez-Eldin and had a pleasure working with both of them during the program. We even got published in the BTL Anthology that's now available to the public at Iowa's iconic bookstore, Prairie Lights. 

Our blog will feature a collection of writing, commentary, thoughts, and maybe some videos or other media. We originally started this blog to keep in touch with each other, but we hope to bring different parts of the world to your screen. Most content will be posted in English, but we will have things in many languages featuring many perspectives and ideas. In writing this blog, we hope to make sense of the modern world through literature and our collective creativity. We also hope to spotlight some of the issues we face as young adults in this brave, new world. So please, come join us as we document our journey on this blog. 

Wishing you peace and love,

Naomi Margolis +the BTL gang