Mehdi Hejvani

About Me

We, especially those who have experienced the ups and downs of migration, have stories and memories stored deep within us that we don't know how to put on paper. Sometimes, we've read and written a lot, but we don't know the different writing formats. For example, we might not know the difference between a story, a memoir, a travelogue, a biography, a report, a news article, or an essay. Look, I'm not a special person. To be humble, having a Ph.D. in Art Research and years of teaching and studying at universities and outside of them - frankly - doesn't mean much. My recent connection with the University of Toronto, years of travel and experience, as well as storytelling, essay writing, translation, or participation in the founding and management of several civil society institutions, the translation of my works into other languages, decades of copyediting in book publishing, editing journals, receiving a study grant from Germany, being nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Award in Sweden, and finally receiving numerous awards from cultural and literary institutions and, in general, working for children and adults does not automatically mean that I can run a creative writing and storytelling workshop. Of course, these experiences and knowledge are useful but not sufficient conditions for teaching. In any case, I can say that I know my job well and I love this profession. I hope you will judge my claims in practice and we can experience good moments together.

Teaching Method

Writing is like driving. No one becomes a driver just by learning the traffic rules, but they have to practice. My method is workshop-based and practical. I want you to become a storyteller and not just a literary scholar. Skill development is important, not knowledge acquisition. My method is "learning by doing," which means that if you have a talent for writing, in my workshop, you will choose a subject and with my help, you will nurture it like a plant seed. Part of each session is dedicated to reading and analyzing your writing. During the course, we will use various published and translated books, some of which I have written or translated myself. Since the topic of the workshop is creative writing in Persian and not Latin, it is necessary for participants to be fluent in Persian.

Experience

Teaching storytelling to 15 people at the Baharan Institute, 2021 Teaching literary criticism to 40 trainers at the Kanoun Parvaresh Fekri for Children and Adolescents Training Center, 2005 and 2010 Teaching storytelling in the cities of Kermanshah, Kerman, Mashhad, Najafabad, Ahvaz, Rasht, Noshahr, and Isfahan 12 years of teaching as an assistant professor of art and literature for students at Allameh Tabatabaei University and Azad University, 2008-2019 2 semesters of online teaching for Master's students at Azad University, 2018-2019 Teaching the elements of children's literature at the Story School, 2019 Online storytelling teaching at the "Tehran Summer School" platform (Instagram), 2019