Creating Interfaith Circles

You can order our book Circle Holding: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Talking Circles on Amazon ([https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/]
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/))

In our conversation Ariel talked about the Arab Israeli Book Club – here’s a guardian review from when it all started, back in 2010:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/08/radical-reading-israeli-arab-book-club
This approach to creating shared cultural conversations across boundaries was inspired by my research for my novel, Raising Sparks. Lebanese novelist Han Al Shaykh named it in a new York Times Interview:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/books/review/hanan-al-shaykh-by-the-book.html
It was shortlisted for the Not the Booker Prize by the Guardian, and received an interestingly critical review here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/05/not-the-booker-raising-sparks-by-ariel-kahn-review-coincidence-unbound
Food and food culture are a big part of my bridge building work – there’s an interesting take on this aspect of Raising Sparks from a food blogger here:
https://family-friends-food.com/raising-sparks-ariel-kahn/
If you are interested in delving into the background of this novel and the interfaith research involved, there is a wonderful interview by Rina Wolfson, herself a gifted educator who has sadly passed away since this interview, which makes it all the mor precious to me: https://www.thejc.com/life/books/raising-sparks-from-suffolk-to-jerusalem-drpuxl5e
Particularly precious to me as an interfaith practitioner is this perceptive review from a Muslim reader:
https://www.northernsoul.me.uk/book-review-raising-sparks-by-ariel-kahn/
He also spoke about creating interfaith spaces in a University setting – I am a proud member of the Middlesex Interfaith Network. We received a national award for our work, including the Interfaith literary student led festival I mention in the podcast – see here for more details: https://barnetpost.co.uk/2024/09/16/middlesex-universitys-staff-inter-faith-group-scoops-honours-at-university-alliance-awards-2024/
His work facilitating creative engagement as a way of building circles was inspired and supported by a wonderful charity Exile Writers Ink, with whom I mentored a refugee Iranian writer, and ran cross-cultural dialogue groups – see:https://www.exiledwriters.co.uk/
His work in this area continues to evolve; on addition to being a visiting fellow at Exter College Oxford,https://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/people/ariel-kahn/  I’m now an associate artist with the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, and planning an interfaith creative workshop for them later this year. See:
https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-ariel-kahn
Dr Ariel Kahn,
Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing, Senior Fellow HEA
Programme Leader, Creative Writing and Journalism
Interim Director of Programmes for Theatre, Creative Writing and Journalism
Member of Middlesex Interfaith Network (MDX IFN) winner of the University Alliance, Alliance Award 2024
Associate Artist, Woolf Institute, Cambridge University
Visiting Fellow 2024-2025, Exter College, Oxford University
Twitter@ArielKahn2
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You can order our book Circle Holding: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Talking Circles on Amazon ([https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/]
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/))

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Music credit: Fabio Venuti