SPECIAL PROJECTS
THE BALKAN WRITERS PROJECT
The Balkan Writers Project is a regional EFL organization founded and directed by Nathan William Meyer to promote English through creative arts, provide in-class training for new and future EL teachers, and post conflict peacebuilding through cross-border artistic exchanges between young literary artists in former Yugoslavia. At its core the Balkan Writers Project is a team of talented young writers, teaching enthusiasts, and citizen diplomats dedicated to fostering global mindedness and multicultural awareness through the English language; they are committed to making a difference. Learn more about the Balkan Writers Project here
BELGRADE POETOGRAPHY
On December 20, 2015 Belgrade held its first city-wide poetography event developed and organized by the Balkan Writers Project. Poetography is a modern visual-literary art form that merges poetry and photography to further enhance the artistic impact of both arts. This city-wide project connected 105 writers and 50 local photographers through social media to collaborate on an artistic endeavor to jointly tell stories of this amazing city through words and images. Belgrade Poetography brought together native Belgradians, people coming from towns and cities around Serbia, other countries across the region, and even other continents. Locals, Serbs, emigres, and expats all devoting their boundless creativity to two fundamental things they have in common: the English language and the city of Belgrade.
THE WHITE CITY WORDSMITHS
The White City Wordsmiths is a creative writing workshop comprised of young, talented Serbian writers dedicated to expressing themselves artistically, crafting meaningful stories, and improving their writing and speaking skills in English. For each meeting original pieces of creative writing (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction) are submitted and read before the twice-monthly meetings where group members give supportive comments on each other’s works in the spirit of collaboration and constructive feedback. Meeting throughout the academic year workshop will polish, compile, and edit their works by fellow members, published as both a print and ebook, and hold a hold a public reading event.
BEFORE I DIE - BELGRADE
On May 27, 2016 over 120 people packed a local arts venue in Belgrade, Serbia to take part in a dynamic ‘Before I Die, Belgrade’ event developed by EL Fellow Nathan William Meyer and the Balkan Writers Project team. This community EFL project was inspired by the global Before I Die art project, but took the original project a step further by turning it into an EFL literary arts project. Participants were invited to submit short texts describing their hope, dream, or aspiration to be published in a collection. At the public event writers read their texts and afterward audience members contributed their own dreams on Before I Die walls at the placed around the event. The public response to this US embassy sponsored EFL project was overwhelming with a total of 343 written submissions from writers of all ages throughout the Balkan region and beyond to Italy, UK, and even North America and Russia.
S.W.E.E.P. -SPEECH WRITING FOR EMBASSY EMPLOYEES & PARTNERS
SWEEP is a training course developed and delivered by Nathan William Meyer to comprehensively address key problems and improve the speechwriting skills for diplomatic and NGO speechwriters. SWEEP is comprised of face-to-face interactive training sessions and workshops of up to 20 participants. All participants receive an accompanying 40 page booklet covering effective writing techniques, style tips, detailed descriptions of 9 different speech types, and quick reference templates for rapid speech production. SWEEP was developed as a replicable program and can be tailored to a variety of different audiences and venues.
