Breakout 3: Writing for Illustrators: Memory as a Dreamscape with Zahra Marwan

 

From her website: Working as a traditional artist with watercolor and ink, Zahra creates work that reflects her cultural roots in Kuwait as well as her life now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She loves poetry and independent cinema and how quiet and mysterious the night is. She is deeply fond of the sea. Her debut picture book, Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, was published by Bloomsbury Books and named one of the New York Times / New York Public Library’s 10 Best Illustrated Books as well as NPR’s Best Books of 2022. The week before receiving the Dilys Evans Founders Award from the Society of Illustrators, she was honored with an award by the UN Human Rights Commission for creating art that brings visibility to statelessness, indigenous groups, and minority rights.

Examples of Zahra Marwan's paintings also include short narratives.

Many of Zahra's books begin as small paintings with short narratives that she writes. Her work is inspired by her lived experiences. In her session, Zahra shared many of her fine art paintings that inspired many of the stories she writes and illustrates. In addition, she read several of her picture books. A writing workshop followed. 

Here are some quick writing prompts. Give yourself 30 seconds to write these.

--Describe a heartbreak in three words. 

--Describe what you did today from the moment you opened your eyes today forward.

--Freewrite a memory where something was easy and simple and good.

--In one sentence, write a feeling.

Write on!