3 Page Article in 'Woman this Month'

Tips from a Teenage Author

Meet Laala Kashef Alghata, on the one hand, a regular teenager wrestling with too much homework and bothersome brothers; on the other hand, a twice-published author and poet. Here Laala gives parents a little advice on how to encourage their children to write.

[INTRO by CHRISTINA FERNANDES]

“So, what are you hobbies besides writing?” I ask Laala. Immediately, it dawns on me that the question, aside from being downright lame, is not very well phrased. Considering Laala has two published books under her belt, it’s probably a little insulting to call her writing a hobby. Nice going. Luckily, Laala doesn’t take offense.

She likes all the things many teenagers do – watching TV, going to the movies and especially painting (she’s taking A Level arts). But “People are the most important part of life, so whenever I have free time, I get on the phone with my friends or meet them,” says Laala.

She’s not your average girl. On the one hand, she is a regular teenager wrestling with everyday problems, such as too much homework and bothersome brothers. On the other hand, she is a twice-published author and poet, all the while maintaining top marks in school.

She might be one of those kids you would really hate if you were still in school; you know the ones that make you feel inadequate because they are such overachievers? But fortunately for her, Laala is much too nice to be disliked. She’s quick to smile, her eyes light up when she talks of her friends and her laugh is more contagious than chicken pox.

Laala’s feelings towards her first two books couldn’t be more different. Of her first, ‘Friendship in Knots’, she says: “I’m almost a little bit embarrassed about it. It’s very simplistic and doesn’t reflect my writing style now.” Nevermind that she wrote it when she was eleven. “But it was my starting point and in that way I’m proud of it.”

When she talks of her second book, ‘Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart’, Laala seems a lot more enthused. “I’m really proud of publishing it; even a year later,” she says.To some, it may be intimidating that she has achieved so much at such a young age, but Laala has stayed grounded and easily relates to other teenagers – WTM couldn’t have found anyone better to give parents a little advice on how to encourage their children to write.


Meet Laala

When confronted with people curious about my interest and ambition in writing, I am generally asked two questions more than any others: What made you begin writing? And, why do you write?

I’ll start with the former. At the time, it didn’t feel significant at all. It was incredibly simple: I was given a creative writing assignment for class, a fantasy story. I was nine, eager to please and enthused by the subject matter. I started writing and realised I didn’t want to stop.

I began writing outside of school. I would write four-page stories about mischievous children and talkative animals, print copies and amuse my relatives by handing them out. Needless to say, the stories themselves were poor, but I was beginning to find immense joy in the world of imagination, of shaping a world to what I wanted it to be.

As for the latter, I tend to return a baffled expression, and reply, “Well, why [ITALS] not write?” A friend once pointed out that this reply isn’t an answer. I’ll attempt to be clearer. To begin with, writing and seeing myself create, was like a high. When I pressed the stories on my friends and family, I received praise and smiles, though no one took it too seriously. Eventually, it became a release and an attempt at eloquence. Finally, it became familiar and as essential as water.

Once, when a teacher asked me what writing meant to me, I delivered an answer I believe is the most accurate description I could give: “Writing, for me, is like breathing. It may sound cliché, but it doesn’t change how vital it is for me. Writing is a release; when I’m upset and turn to it, it’s like a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day; but when I’ve got writer’s block it’s as uncomfortable and painful as wriggling out of a stronghold.”

Naturally, when I started writing my vocabulary was limited and dry; I didn’t give much thought to sentence structure or grammar. However, I was an extremely avid reader, and if I was to give only one suggestion it would be this: get the kids reading. As a tool, it was indispensable – my vocabulary increased exponentially, even my punctuation and grammar worked itself out. I would sound things out in my head, and know whether or not they were correct.

A good way to get children reading is to have books around them. I was lucky to love reading – I curled up in my bed and read Little Women when I was nine and cried my eyes out. I’d read at least a hundred books before I’d even left primary school. Reading lent an escape, a place to push the boundaries of imagination.

When I was ten, I began the first draft of Friendship in Knots, the children’s novel that made me the first Bahraini to publish a book directly in English, and the youngest to publish a book. At the time, the idea was rather loose, and I stumbled my way through the first half of the story. After completing it sometime when I was eleven, I abandoned the book for a while. I eventually got around to editing it and publishing it two years later.

I later became fascinated with language itself, which is when I branched off into poetry. My first attempts at poetry I would label disasters if it weren’t for the fact that I was thirteen and experimenting. Poetry was a new world – it was through this medium that I communicated my displeasure and grievances, spilled my thoughts onto paper and began to understand myself. There have been several instances in my life where the first place I would recoil to or fall back on is my poetry. It served a channel of communication primarily between me and myself – at times, poems personal to me are almost more raw than my thoughts. These poems are rarely seen at the time, though once time passes I’m more liberal with them.

I’ve been asked if my poetry – my writing – has given me a sense of confidence or has increased my self-esteem. I’m a pretty confident person; I was before my writing. So I can’t attribute that to it. Self-esteem, however, I can. As I began to get progressively better, I felt a sense of elation, of doing something that included a certain level of talent. One has to have some conviction in themselves, though, when writing – it has become unfashionable. Poetry is considered by many to be dead.

I find this endlessly sad – people glance at Milton’s verses, for instance, and expect all poetry to be equally inaccessible. The ordinary beauty has dissipated. I want to stand and scream, “IT HASN’T!” The beauty is still available in plentiful supply. You just have to learn where to look. Poets such as E. E. Cummings are much more appealing to people being introduced to poetry. For instance:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

My first two years of poetry were cliché-imbued or prose broken up by line breaks. It was only when I was close to turning sixteen that something clicked and my poetry took on a whole new meaning, a different level. I worked frantically at it, producing more work than I had ever done before, spent the summer editing and by the end of last September, I published again.

Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart is a work I am incredibly proud of, produced with plenty of passion and emotion. I genuinely believe it to be an interesting and easy read. I frequently flip through the pages for inspiration in my newer work.

To end, though, I say this: first, the reason I am so completely in love with writing is that it is mine. I was encouraged but never overtly, and I was left to improve myself in whatever way I saw fit. While diffident or fastidious children will need more support and praise; in my opinion, forcing them will do little to help. Second, while writing does – of course – require talent and dedication but it begins in children’s tales, as most authors will readily tell you.


Laala’s 10 Tips to Help Your Children Write:

1. Make them read. Then read some more.
2. Don’t force it, but encourage them and give small rewards to those who have finished a book, for instance.
3. Don’t make them read something you know they will have no interest in.
4. Encourage them to write down thoughts, ideas, and to keep a diary or notes of their day. Let this be private, unless they wish to share it.
5. Understand that their imagination works in different ways than yours, and go along with it.
6. Read through drafts of stories and praise them. If they’re young, or are just beginning to experiment, do not criticise as this will make them feel like failures.
7. As they grow up, or grow better, begin to point out weaknesses or flaws. Keep pointing out the good things, too.
8. If they show interest, don’t let them drop it because they’re grown up.” Persuade them to write about different things and let their mind wander.
9. Understand that sometimes they will write things that they will keep from you, either because it is personal, or because they don’t think it’s good enough.
10. Let them see that you, too, read and occasionally write. You are their primary model, and if you encourage them without expressing an interest yourself, or if they never see you with a book, it won’t reinforce the ideas.


Two Poems printed alongside the article:

Texts of Emotion and Unique Fingerprints

My senses are imbedded deep within my mind’s monastery
with monks scribbling in focus to copy texts of my emotions
to record feelings and lies into my subconscious and desert
me in my reality, to make me able to wake from dreams
of all-consuming darkness, of my heart disappearing
and dissolving with acid to corrode life, those that I hold precious
unavailable, miles in between some of us and lies between
the others, such tight knots that life knits in the canvas
of our skin, irreplaceable prints of significance making
everyone unique unto themselves, a fingerprint to the world,
but an identity to me.


Just This Moment

A shimmer in the corner of a half-closed eye
deceives and perceives a wave of anguish,
falling, rolling, splashing on the shore.
Pushing back the golden yellow sand
because nothing is that pure,
that small and fine. Digging into beauty
and throwing it back up in the air,
messing around with it,
changing it into something it’s not.

Lips crash violently against the tide
and try to hide the passion and anger
that birthed their power.
Just grip, hold on, and perhaps
you’ll stay and not end up
in some random world,
where everyone talks, walks,
and even strays the same.

Lose yourself in pointless beauty
and pinpoint the time that your life
took its turn for the better,
and forget every twist it took
that left you lost, cold, and hungry.

Catch and stroke a butterfly,
in another lifetime or this one.
Paint all the colours
that you see in the sky
to create the world’s one masterpiece,
then hide it amongst the clouds.

Live, breathe, and forget how
to curse, for a mere moment.

'Be in Love' in The Love Book

I was surfing online earlier today, and I found a poem of mine, Be in Love on a site called The Love Book. I wasn't informed of her wanting to post my poem, but since she gave me credit I don't find fault in it and am flattered.

[Link]

The Peregrine Muse

I am a featured poet at the newly-established The Peregrine Muse. My poetry can be found on this page, and it will be updated, albeit rarely.

Go over and enjoy.

Two pieces in LaFen's "Reflections" Issue

La Fenetre, a wonderful e-zine birthed in Jan, has made the decision to burn out and not fade away. This issue is the last but one. Reflections, the Sept/Oct issue, featured a poem and a prose piece by yours truly. The print version of Reflections will be on sale on 25th Sept, via the site.

Links:

So
Despite the Splinters in My Heart, I Still Love

Two poems in All Things Girl

Two of my poems, Fading Need and Children No More appear in this month's "Moving On" issue of All Things Girl.

Links:

Fading Need
Children No More

Featured Poem at Soul to Soul

This week's Featured Poem as Soul to Soul is my poem, Loneliness: A Mental Indisposition.

Loneliness is not some chosen path
but an obsession maintained carefully,
analogous to mental disease,
the mental indisposition to let oneself
be loved or feel at ease. Loneliness
bites, it severs our sentiment
and leaves us with poetry in our veins.

Loneliness is not a shelter, it does
not give refuge from the storm.
It is bland, colourless and blind
until spliced open, when it chokes
on the metaphors bubbling underneath.

Two poems in Kritya

Two of my poems, Beauty Evapourated and Past the Heavens can be found in Kritya, an online journal of poetry.

Past the Heavens can be found here, alongside the rest of the issue. To find my poem, press CTRL+F and type "Laala". It'll take you there. Past the Heavens is also the featured poem of the "Poetry in our Time" section of the site.
Beauty Evapourated can be found here, with my biography.

Three more in LaFen's Sundowner issue

I have two poems and a prose piece in La Fenetre's wonderful new issue, Sundowner. Please head over to the site and browse around, and if you like what you see, support them by buying a hard copy of this issue.

Links:

The Silence Behind Your Words
Kiss My Knuckles While I Hold Your Soul
Child Naïvité

My poems in Poetry Life and Times

I am a Featured Poet in this month's Anti-War Issue of Poetry Life and Times. It looks like a great issue, with plenty of talented contributors.

You can find my poems, Crimson Death and You Paint War on this page. I am the first featured poet.

Enjoy it!

Asian American Poetry

Two of my poems have been accepted at Asian American Poetry, and the Editor-in-Chief, Mor Chang, wants to make me one of the Poets-in-Spotlight, highlighting my poem Just This Moment. That will go up in a couple of weeks, but for now, you can view Texts of Emotion and Unique Fingerprints on AAP.

Link:

[Texts of Emotion and Unique Fingerprints]

World Poets Society

I forgot to mention that a few months ago I became a member of World Poets Society, "A Literary Organization for Contemporary Poets from all around the World."

My listing can be found by pressing CTRL+F and typing "Laala" and searching. It includes links to both this site and WMM.

And here's a poem I wrote back in Nov, which I haven't published anywhere:

And They Say, Hope

i.

When we reach
the end of the rope
and come close
to collapsing,
we turn to the wise

ii.

& they say, have hope.
Like it's the easiest thing
to keep a hold of,
forgetting that hope
is slippery

it slides from
between our fingers,
disappears into
the shadows
to make us forget.

iii.

& they say, have hope.
Like it's something
you can have servings of,
a spoonful with every meal.

But it is not a drug
though I wish it were;
I would take it.

iv.

& they say, have hope.
Like it's something
they're offering us.

Update on Soul to Soul

Joneve's accepted another two of my poems onto my page at Soul to Soul.

Links:

Fans of Dali
Dream On

New Issue of Write Me a Metaphor now Up and Running!

The new issue of Write Me a Metaphor is now live!

For those who don't know, WMM is my own online poetry and prose journal.

This issue is absolutely fantastic -- I got some really wonderful submissions. It features the work of English Professor Ed Higgins, poet and photographer Jonathan J Ames, host of Soul to Soul Joneve McCormick, aspiring poet Nicholas Yancey, successful poet Wes Bishop and me.

Please head over to www.writemeametaphor.com and look at the beautiful poetic work on show, please feel free to email queries or feedback at writemeametaphor@gmail.com. Any submissions will also be welcome, take a look at the submissions page on the site and please follow the guidelines. I can't read submissions that don't.

There is a couple more changes to be made to the site, but they're slight -- just the addition of a "Links" page to other great journals and ezines etc.

That's it for now.

Featured Poem on Soul to Soul

"Texts of Emotion and Unique Fingerprints" is this week's featured poem at Soul to Soul.

Update on Soul to Soul

Joneve's accepted another two of my poems onto my page at Soul to Soul.

Links:

The Book of Life
Beauty Evapourated

"Fans of Dali" in La Fenetre

La Fenetre's Summer Magic issue came out a few days ago, with my poem, Fans of Dali, in it.

[Link to the poem].

Fans of Dali

Dali doesn't need us. Doesn't need
our awe or our excitement at being
amongst his pieces in London or
St Petersburg. His clocks will melt
whether we watch the time or not,
his rose will hang in wonder
whether we press our breath
in the empty space between it
and the sand plains underneath.

Dali doesn't need us looking
into the shadows of his self-portrait
or testing the strength of the sticks
holding up his dream.

Dali knows that he doesn't need
us like we need him, and that
no matter what he does, his art
drips its way into our hearts
and like his clocks, melts and forms
around our thud. thud. thud.

The world has their clocks, and most
go on daylight savings, ever-changing.
We have our clocks. They're Dali,
and they're everlasting.

© 2007 Laala Kashef Alghata

'Undying' in SubtleTea

This quarter's issue of SublteTea is up and running, and it features a poem of mine, Undying.

[Link to Undying on SubtleTea].

Update on Soul to Soul

Joneve (the editor at Soul to Soul) has updated my page at Soul to Soul with another two poems, My Heart Complains and Past the Heavens.

Links:

My Heart Complains
Past the Heavens

Poem in All Things Girl

The March/April issue of All Things Girl, whose theme is 'Heartbreak', is now up and running. It's a great read, take the time to go check it out.

It features one of my poems, My Heart Complains.

[Link]

Update on Soul to Soul

I updated my page at Soul to Soul with two poems, His Watchmen Never Fell Asleep and The Departed.

Links:

His Watchmen Never Fell Asleep
The Departed

Six pieces in LaFen's Second Issue

La Fenetre, a really wonderful poetry and prose site recently launched in January, has just launched their second issue, which hosts six of my pieces, three poems (The Painters and I, Dali's Rose and Death, "Goodnight") and three prose (Yes, Represent and City of Limbo).

It really is an amazing site, and I'm proud to be a part of it. There's a print version, too, which corresponds with every online issue. The print issue will be out by late March. It's exciting for me, because it's the first many-person anthology I will feature in.

Links:

The Painters and I
Dali's Rose
Death, "Goodnight"
Yes
Represent
City of Limbo

Birthday

It's my birthday today! I have finally turned seventeen.

Two new poems in Argotist Online

I've had another two poems accepted into Argotist Online, I Want to Feel Van Gogh's Night and The Nature of Signs.

They can be found on my page at Argotist Online.

That's it for now.

Update and Featured Poem on Soul to Soul

I updated my page at Soul to Soul with two poems, The Nature of Signs and Draw, Speak and Describe Love.

I got an email yesterday informing me that The Nature of Signs is this week's featured poem.

Poet-in-Residence at ArgoBoat, plus blurb

I am the newest poet-in-residence at Argo Spier's ArgoBoat. My collection on there, titled Yellow Sand (title given by Argo), is a mix of poems from Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart and some newer material. Altogether, there are twenty poems featured.

Argo Spier also wrote a wonderful blurb about my writing, which can be found on my page at his site.

Laala Kashef Alghata lives and studies in Bahrain.

Yellow Sand, her present collection of verse, portrays her as a meticulous observant of the world around her. With full bodied verse she charters her sharp observances and describes the things and occurrences that surrounds her. And always there is reflection of her inner position in relation to the events that take place.

Yellow Sand takes the reader on a tour of tranquility and shows him with very clear transparency where the poet stands with her inner feelings. Playing with single themes and using modern metaphors, she describes the universe as it opens up to her. Topics such as hope, the absolve of absence and the cure for love, that is the duality of her love affair with the world she lives in and the love she experiences for the absent yet always calling Muse, give Yellow Sand a universality that transcends her own base locality.

Verse such as the following make of Laala Kashef Alghata an up-coming young poet of great promise. The reader will find her work accessible and quite enjoyable.

'Distance means
my fingers pressing
melodies with keys
instead of into your arms
as I pull you into my embrace.

Distance is
a form
of torture.

Distance can
be overcome.'

-Argo Spier

My page at the ArgoBoat.

Poet-in-Residence at Soul to Soul

I have been going through a tough time recently, as my grandfather passed away a week ago. It's hard and it's going to be hard for a long time.

Good, writing-related news however: I am now a poet-in-residence at Soul to Soul. I have a page there now, which I plan to update every month. The editor loves my writing and I'm very flattered.

Link to my page on Soul to Soul.

Go, read, enjoy.

Write Me a Metaphor.

So, that surprise project that I was going on about?

I've started my own online poetry and prose journal! An ambitious project, and one I am committed to. Feel free to read, enjoy, and if appropriate, submit.

This quarter's issue features the poetry of Lisa Zaran, Zoe Migicovsky, Alyssa May Trifone and myself.

Write Me a Metaphor, an online poetry journal and the brainchild of Laala Kashef Alghata.

Amazon

Amazon just sent me an email ordering more stock of my book. They sold the one I sent them! I'm insanely pleased. The level of my excitement may seem silly to some, as this is definitely not the first book I've sold (I've sold a fair few); but it is the first one to someone I don't know outside of Bahrain. People in the USA, Canada, UK, Oman and UAE (and Sweden, soon) have copies of my book, and they paid for it, but they're people who have been reading my poetry online for at least a year, thus I know them a little. This time, it's someone overseas and I've no clue who.

I'm a happy little poet.

Poetry in Because We Write

My poetry is now also in the inaugural issue of Because We Write.

Link to my poems, Texts of Emotion and Unique Fingerprints and Just This Moment.

Work in ezines.

My piece, So, had been accepted into this month's issue of All Things Girl a couple of months ago. The issue is now finally live and looks great!

Link to my prose piece, So.

Voice Newspaper is a new (as of Jan 2007) paper comprising of poems, prose, essays and art. If you're interested in submitting something, they can be reached at voicestaff@yahoo.com. They wrote to me a few months ago asking for permission to include of my pieces. I said yes, and their first issue is now out. It's in PDF format, so once I find a link where others can download it, I'll post it here. Regardless, it's a publication credit.

That's it for now. I'm off.

Acceptance.

This is going to be brief, I'm in the middle of studying for my exams. But, I got another acceptance, this one at Argotist Online.

Link to my poem, Dali's Rose.

Happy New Year!

Well, welcome, 2007. I wonder how this year is going to go. At any rate, I hope it's a good one for my writing. In my next post I'll hopefully have links to places where my writing is appearing this month. I'm pleased at the acceptances, though the rejections did dampen my spirits a little. Regardless, I'm waiting on replies from another handful of places, so we'll see how it goes.

The 'surprise project' is just great. I wanted to launch it today but that won't be possible. Just blame my dreadful HTML skills. But, it should be ready within a few days and I'll be announcing it then.

Apart from a brief post with the links to my writing, I'm going to try my best to tone down on the writing front for a couple of weeks. My AS levels are fast approaching (just a week away, now) and studying really should be my priority.

That's all for now.