Being an author is often not only about writing books. Many of the Pontas authors put in as much energy into parallel activities than into the act of completing a book: readings, seminars, courses, blogs, cultural projects of all sorts... Here are three interesting examples:
Susan Abulhawa, besides running the NGO "Playgrounds for Palestine" (an organization dedicated to building playgrounds and recreation areas for Palestinian children living under military occupation), has recently developed her first poetry-video, adding a whole new dimension to the act of reading poetry. The poem can be watched here and is included in her collection My Voice Sought the Wind.
Blanca Busquets, a Barcelona-based writer with fifteen years of experience and six novels under her belt, has just inaugurated her own writing school. The first course is titled "Writing to be published" and will begin in February 2014. Here’s her video-presentation (in Catalan).
Sara Lövestam, author of the recently published Hjärta av jazz, her fourth novel so far, also spends most of her day teaching Swedish to immigrants. Because she just loves grammar, she has just finished a humor book on Swedish grammar titled Grejen med Verb. Unfortunately, it´s still a bit too complicated for her students but maybe one day they will enjoy it!