The thought-provoking session titled ‘Exploring the Impact of Shared Experiences on Community Building in Literature’ had American Karina Yan Glaser, Iraqi Sarah Alsarraf, and French-Moroccan Driss el-Yazami join moderator Salma Al Hafeeti in offering valuable insights into how shared human experiences can create deeper connections among individuals.
Talking about building characters inspired by real life, Yan Glaser – best known for the seven-volume children's fiction series The Vanderbeekers, based on a family with five children and several pets living in Harlem – said: “When I create characters, I always begin with the place and setting; for me, that’s Harlem, NYC - a rich, historical neighbourhood where I live. So many stories come from just seeing and greeting my neighbours. I find it beautiful to learn from people different from you, to build friendships in diverse communities. That’s the environment I want to reflect in my stories - a place of love and connection.”
Meanwhile, journalist and broadcaster Al-Sarraf, who spent 14 years writing her debut novel I Heard It All – nominated for this year’s Arabic Booker Prize and set in Baghdad in the 1980s serving a sentimental nod to that era, said: “Each life not lived could be its own story. Writing has made me realise the number of lives I wish to experience, and each one could be a novel. It’s an exploration of alternate paths, of worlds I haven’t stepped into, but can imagine vividly. Through my characters, I explore places and emotions I may never encounter firsthand. Writing becomes a way of understanding the choices we don’t make, the people we don’t become, and in each, there’s a lesson waiting to unfold.”
El-Yazami, who was President of Morocco’s National Council of Human Rights (CNDH) between 2011 and 2018, recalled his childhood days in Fez where he grew up while talking about characters and Imagination. “I didn’t read much as a child; we lived in one room, and I often fled home to find stories elsewhere. But imagination brought me to writers like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. I grew up surrounded by libraries and cultural centres from around the world - British, American, Egyptian, Moroccan - where books offered escape,” said the 72-year-old remarking how he often wakes up past midnight, “needing a novel to fall asleep again”.
“Characters are companions; they liberate us from our immediate reality, allowing us to live multiple lives through their stories,” he added.
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