The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa recently launched a new web project, Collections from the IWP Experience. This new site presents work by writers and artists around the world who came together through the residencies and distance learning initiatives at the IWP.

The first showcase is an extraordinary collection of fiction, photography, and nonfiction from Caracas, Venezuela and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Summer 2014, 22 writers and photographers in Caracas, Venezuela and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina came together in an online exchange to create fiction, nonfiction, and photography centered on a theme of "narrative witness." Writing in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Spanish, and English, the participants undertook to capture their experiences as artists and citizens of Sarajevo and Caracas. Led by writing and photography workshop facilitators and supported by Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian-English and Spanish-English translators, the group workshopped their photo essays and texts online over the course of the summer.  As critical and collaborative discussion arose from these workshops, several writers were inspired to write texts in response to the photographers’ essays. More information on the exchange can be found here. 

The International Writing Program is proud to present the collected work of this endevour online here: Narrative Witness: A Caracas-Sarajevo Collaboration.