Editor’s Note: our Former Contributors Interview Project showcases former contributors of Stone Soup and the wonderful things they’ve gone on to do. Abby Sewell wrote “On the Headland,” from our March/April 1996 issue. SS: What are you doing now? AS: I’m a journalist, currently based in Beirut. I’m a staff reporter for The Daily Star, the primary English-language newspaper in Lebanon, and freelance for a number of international publications. I cover a variety of subjects, but I’m particularly focused on human rights issues, including the situation of Syrian refugees. I also do some volunteer work, primarily teaching English, and am part of a group called Hakaya that puts on storytelling events. SS: What did Stone Soup mean to you? AS: From the time I was around seven years old, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. Stone Soup gave me an early taste of what it would be like to be published, and of course it boosted my confidence to see my work in print. I think I also enjoyed seeing what “the competition” (aka my peers) were writing. SS: Do you have any advice for current readers, writers, and artists who contribute to Stone Soup? AS: When you’re learning a craft, whether it’s writing or art, it’s important to expose yourself to works that you can learn from and that will give you inspiration; but at the same time, to develop your own voice and your own vision. Experiment with different styles and subjects. For fiction writers, the classic advice “write what you know” still holds true, but that doesn’t mean that your characters and situations have to come directly from your life. What it does mean it that you should draw from your own experience and observations of the world as you tell your story, even if that story takes place in an imaginary world or in a setting very different from your own. Ursula Le Guin, one of my favorite novelists, called this “imagination working on observation.” Also, try to meet as many different types of people as you can and listen to their stories. And as with any skill, practice. SS: How old were you when you started writing or creating art? Do you remember what motivated you at the time? AS: Even before I could write, I used to tell stories (there’s a cassette tape somewhere with some of them on it). My parents both shared their love of books with me. Before I was old enough to read a lot of the classics myself, they used to read to me — everything from Little Women and Tom Sawyer to the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin. Naturally, I became a voracious reader myself as I grew up, and seeing the power of stories, I was inspired to tell my own. SS: Are you still writing or creating art, and have you since published works anywhere else? Please provide links, if you’d like! AS: Yes, I write for a living, although it’s a different type of writing. As a kid, I always wanted to be a novelist, but I remember at one point deciding that I should work as a journalist first to learn more about the world before trying to write fiction. And indeed, I do know more about the world now, but I haven’t yet gone back to writing fiction! But it’s certainly possible that there’s still a novel in my future. For those interested in seeing my journalistic writings, you can find some of them here. Thanks so much, Abby! If you have any questions that you’d like to ask former contributors, contact sarah@stonesoup.com and let us know!
refugee project news
Thoughts on Jewish Refugees in Shanghai
When people think about the Holocaust and Jewish refugees during WWII, they rarely think about Shanghai. For a long time, I didn’t even know Shanghai was open to Jewish refugees at that time. Recently, I watched the documentary Survival in Shanghai. That documentary featured many Holocaust survivors who told of their escape to Shanghai. When I watched it, I couldn’t help but think of the current Syrian refugee crisis, and how my country, the U.S., doesn’t allow many Syrian refugees to cross our borders. Like Shanghai did more than 80 years ago, the U.S. should help those people in need, even if we do have problems of our own. The Holocaust was one of the most horrific and notable genocides in history. It began when Adolf Hitler started to persecute Jews as a scapegoat for Germany’s financial problems. That persecution became widespread in 1933 when he rose to power in Nazi Germany. Jewish homes and businesses were smashed, and synagogues were burned. Many Jewish people were put in concentration camps, and were then killed in numerous ways, including starvation, gas chambers, and overwork. As a result, over 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. As Jews tried to flee from Germany, they had no place to go, for not many countries wanted to rouse Germany. However, He Fengshan, a Chinese diplomat, issued Chinese visas to Jewish immigrants. The exact number of visas he issued is unknown, but he gave out twelve hundred over the first three months of his position, so the number is believed to be in tens of thousands. One must realize during that time, China had its own hardships to deal with. The Japanese, allied with the Germans in WWII, were occupying much of China, including Shanghai. Despite their own mistreatment, the Chinese pushed their misfortunes and grievances away in order to help others. They sacrificed money and time to help refugees settle in to their new homes. The Chinese opened their arms, and gave their kindness and food, even when they barely had enough food for their own families. “What impressed me most was the welcome we received,” said Jared Cohen, one of the Holocaust survivors. “…they accepted us, they were happy with us, and we were respected.” Willa Sassoon, another refugee, recalled her friendly neighbors, who invited her to their home every day to play with their daughter after school. “They more or less adopted me,” she said. Today, Syria is in the middle of a civil war. 13 million Syrians have lost their homes, and need a safe shelter. Since 2015, 18,000 Syrians received US visa. However, in 2017, the US president, Donald Trump, imposed a travel ban on six Muslim countries, including Syria. He said terrorists may be hidden in a crowd of Muslim immigrants. That ban stopped the flow of Muslim immigrants of many ethnicities. America, as a developed country, has more resources than most other countries, and should take the responsibilities to help others in need. Many Americans believe Syrians would commit crime, and would be a bad appendage to our society. However, that is not true. After the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, ordinary people just like you and me, lost their homes overnight. Hardworking adults and innocent kids were placed in refugee camps. Men and women who could bring benefit to our society are refused by the US government a chance to rebuild their lives. A study on Syrian immigrants by the Washington Post shows that Syrian immigrants have been a “highly entrepreneurial group.” 11% of Syrian immigrants in the US are entrepreneurs, compared to 3% of the people born in the US. Also, according to the Center for American Progress, all immigrants in the US for less than ten years have an average annual income of $30,000, while recent Syrian immigrants earn average wages of $43,000 a year. One of the biggest fears Americans have about Syrian immigrants is terrorism. What if a terrorist sneaks into the US by pretending to be an immigrant? According to the Nation Institute and Center for Investigative Reporting, there have been about 90 deaths caused by Islamist terrorists in the US, from 2008-2016. That may be a lot, but in only 2016, there have been 37,461 deaths caused by cars in the US. Does that mean we should be afraid of cars, and ban them? No, we should use precautions to make our roads safer, educate drivers, and enforce driving laws. Similarly, instead of cutting off the flow of immigrants, we should enhance border control, intelligence work, and law enforcement to minimize terrorist attacks. In fact, even with the travel ban, terrorists may still come into our country illegally, so blocking immigrants is not an effective strategy. I live in an active Jewish community called Scarsdale, New York. At school, during the holidays, many people go around saying “Happy Hanukkah” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Many of my friends are Jewish, and they are so nice, dedicated to study, and kindhearted. I hate to imagine what would have happened to them had they been living in Nazi Germany. I would have definitely helped them, even if it meant endangering myself. To put them up for mistreatment and choose not to help would have made me hate myself for the rest of my life. The Jewish during the Holocaust and the Syrians today could be your neighbors, classmates or friends. They are just ordinary people like you and me. In summary, Americans should allow Syrian immigrants into our borders, like the people of Shanghai did for the Jews. We should look past stereotypes and fear of terrorism, and lend helping hands to less fortunate people. If the people of Shanghai were able to support Jewish immigrants on their meager resources, Americans should do so too.
The Stone Soup Refugee Project
About our Fall 2019 fundraiser Help needed for our upcoming Refugee Special Issue Dear friends and supporters of Stone Soup, As some of you know, we have recently embarked on an exciting endeavor. In 2020 we plan to launch a special issue of Stone Soup which will feature the creative work of children in refugee camps around the world. We have been fortunate enough to partner with Laura Doggett and her art initiative, “Another Kind of Girl Collective,” (AKOGC) which has been working for the past five years to give teenage girls in Za’atari Refugee Camp in Northern Jordan the ability to express their inner worlds through film documentation. We want to raise a total of $5,000 to support the Special Issue and associated projects. Make it possible for teen refugees to mentor the younger children Khaldiya, Younid, and Marah are three teen girls who live in Za’atari Refugee Camp. They have agreed to lead a two-month-long photography workshop for children with the intention of generating submissions for our Stone Soup refugee issue. Here is where we turn to you, our generous donors. $2,000 will pay Khaldiya, Younid, and Marah a stipend, purchase workshop supplies, and mail back issues of Stone Soup to Za’atari so the children can hold the magazines in their hands and see what is possible for them, too. With your help, our partnership with “Another Kind of Girl Collective” will foster creative inspiration and guidance. Support the wider project: production, web development, and printing Funds raised in excess of this amount–the other $3,000 of our goal–will be used to support the costs of publishing additional material from this group of children on our website, and towards the costs of producing the Special Issue of Stone Soup magazine, as well as providing print copies of the Special Issue to all of the participating camps. It will also contribute towards a campaign to publicise their work. If we exceed our fundraising goal, we might even be able to sponsor additional workshops. We have set ourselves a target goal of $5,000. Will you help us reach it? So often, media portrays refugee children as the subject of a narrative. This project gives them agency to tell their own stories. Our hope is to make it easier for people and the international press to access creative work that may inspire action. Please donate toward our goal and help to empower the voices of refugee children. Thank you for believing in us. We wouldn’t be where we are today without your support. Sincerely, Margie Chardiet Refugee Project Director Donate to the Stone Soup Refugee Project Be inspired by Stone Soup’s legacy of publishing this kind of work Dear friends It’s a depressing reality that these situations are not new, and that children are always part of the group of people caught up in events outside their control. Creative practice is one of the few outlets these children might have to express themselves and to process and describe what they have experienced. The work Margie Chardiet has been doing for us to build partnerships with people working on the ground in camps is really helping Stone Soup to contribute something towards making their work and the children’s experiences more widely known and understood. Stone Soup has a history of publishing extraordinary work by children who have lived through the trauma of war and fleeing their homes, both their art and their writing. Visit our website to see images produced during the Cyprus conflict, and some powerful, harrowing writing by child refugees from Vietnam. This is the kind of work your donations will help to make possible, and to make public via Stone Soup. Please consider helping us with a contribution towards this Special Issue, and the on-the-spot work that will empower creative refugee children today. Thank you. William Rubel President & CEO Donate now to support child refugee creativity Not convinced? Be inspired to help by our current Stone Soup writers Our young readers and writers in the United States and elsewhere have provided us with inspiration, information, and fantastic blog posts throughout this project, which we first proposed in early 2018. Some of them have already donated to this campaign with both money and time. You can read some of their insights on our blog. Sabrina Guo has been particularly prolific. Read her pieces on Za’atari Camp and the crisis for refugee children more generally, as well as some personal reflections on the Stone Souprefugee project, and a specific piece on AKOGC and Laura Doggett’s work. Ivy Halpern’s review of the book Refugee by Alan Gratz also offers some reflections on the experiences of refugee children from Syria and at other points in history. Follow our young writers’ lead and help us to support and encourage their contemporaries in camps around the world. Thank you. September 2019 Donate today
