The ALC-ALIF Lecture Series continues on Monday (April 18th) at the ALIF Riad, 6 Derb Drissi starting at 7pm with a lecture by author Samantha HerronThe general public are welcome at the lecture, reading & discussion on “The Djinn in the Skull: Stories from Hidden Morocco”.
When author Samantha Herron visited Morocco for the first time it changed the course of her life. On her return to London she abandoned a successful art career in order to study Arabic. She went on to spend time living with an Amazigh (Berber) family of former nomads in the Draa Valley on the edge of the Sahara Desert, where she immersed herself in the language, culture and traditions of the country.
Samantha comments: ‘I learned the local dialect and took classes in Arabic and the Quran with other women from the village. I travelled in the desert, learned how to take care of camels and sheep, how to ablute and pray, and helped the other women in the family with the day-to-day running of the home. I fell in love with storytelling and stories, which are at the heart of everyday life in Morocco. I began to document the stories I was hearing and then found myself imagining and composing my own.’
The Djinn in the Skull: Stories from Hidden Morocco (Soul Bay Press October 2015) is her debut collection of fictional stories set in contemporary Morocco. Her previous work includes the English and Arabic publication Dardasha: Testimonies of Migration by Moroccan Women (Soul Bay Press 2011).
See our review of The Djinn in the Skull
Samantha's website: https://samanthaherron.wordpress.com
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