Foreword

Time often has a way of flying by and of feeling fleeting. During the global pandemic, time has felt something else, something harder to describe. Maybe, long. Uncertain, perhaps. So, I recall thinking in the lead up to the SI 2021 program, what would a two-week virtual program feel like amidst the pandemic, especially for students whose lives and senses of normalcy have been disrupted, changed for well over a year? Would Zooming in for a few hours each day feel insufficient? No, I very happily discovered, because of how the new cohort embraced the program. They did not let the two weeks fly by. Instead, they managed to slow time down! I repeatedly witnessed it—especially during writing workshops and the open mic. Participants put their full selves into time spent together and they offered so much to one another. Such intense active listening! Such generous feedback for their peers! Such repartee with their mentors! Such support and positivity through Zoom chat and reactions! They did the little things to make the very most of the two weeks—growing as writers and thinkers, making new friends across borders, and proving yet again that meaningful time spent in shared space and common cause makes the world a better place. ~~~ How did we get here? In 2017, the US Embassy in Islamabad extended a call for proposals for programs that would bring together young people from Pakistan, India, and the US. Drawing upon its five-decade history of cultural diplomacy through literature, and its human and cultural capital and know-how, the International Writing Program drew up a project for a Summer Institute, and had the good fortune to be chosen. A cultural exchange program, the Summer Institute selects, in an open application process, ten remarkable college-age writers from each of the three countries to convene and give special focus to creative writing and the power of narrative. Attendees take part in collaborative workshops focused on their creative work, in seminars to expand literary knowledge of diverse global literatures, in special seminars on the craft of writing, and in activities designed to forge new lines of understanding and shared purpose. More information can be found here: iwp.uiowa.edu/2021-summer-institute. Drawing on IWP’s five-decade experience, above all its Fall Residency—the host of several generations of distinguished Indian and Pakistani writers—but also the youth summer exchange program, Between the Lines, and several others, the Summer Institute aims to connect participants across national, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, promote social justice, and foreground dive rsity, empathy, and community. Each participant, we hope, will come to see their writing as a form of action—a personally-empowering skill that can also be employed for social change. The first of these groups came to the University of Iowa campus in 2019, where they engaged in an intensive fortnight session of writing and learning. In 2020, due to the global pandemic, the program was redesigned as a 10-month virtual experience, hosted again in Iowa City and finding home in cities spread not only throughout the mainland US, in Pakistan, and in India, but also in Puerto Rico, Canada, Nigeria, and the UK. In 2021, the latest iteration of the program was virtual once again yet returned to a 15-day schedule, harnessing the excitement and intensity of the original model.

Crosswalks For me, then, the two weeks this June was a fantabulous reminder about the need to appreciate time. Moments spent together with new (and, perhaps, unlikely) friends. Hours absorbed in learning about each other’s personalities and habits and about craft, love, travel, and views of Partition. Days relishing the excitement and the possibilities of exchanging cultures through creative writing. Making the most of the two weeks also meant investing considerable time towards a collaborative project: the anthology. Led by their mentors, the participants generously workshopped one another’s writing, openly discussed a range of applicable craft elements, and diligently edited the original pieces they submitted for inclusion in Crosswalks. Considering all the ways they traversed time-space to meet and to listen to each other, to enter new literal and figurative places together, and to build pathways to connect their unique voices and styles, it’s an aptly titled collection, I’d say. It is fitting, too, in how it conjures in my mind images of the many streets in Iowa City these fast friends and collaborators will journey together next summer— experiences, I have no doubt, to inspire the next anthology!

Crosswalks offers readers stories about life amidst change, disruption, and newness. The collection’s fiction and poetry describe living through grief, searching for self while navigating complicated relationships with others, redefining love, and finding home again after migration. Writers in Crosswalks also experiment with style and format, artfully using spacing or footnotes or wordplay to give added depth to their pieces. In yet other pieces, authors in this anthology have taken to heart the Summer Institute’s charge to see writing as a form of action and to see themselves as engaged citizens and leaders in their communities whose words contribute to social change. They complicate and challenge gender and sexuality norms. They shine a bright and resistant light on injustice, violence, and patriarchy. They model vulnerability and strength in the face of the pandemic. They explore the complex and changing dynamics between themselves and their parents, often upending the expectations of the past. Indeed, they write on the topics that matter to their generation. Reading the work of these Summer Institute writers, I am sure you will agree, is time very well spent. Ever grateful to read their work, Peter Gerlach