When I was in college, I remember reading THE COLOR PURPLE in an American studies class and marveling at how someone could write of such horrible indignities done on to someone with such dignity. I still am in awe of such a skill, and I was reminded of it yesterday during a bout of insomnia–I had to be up for a radio interview with Dr. Alvin Jones at 5 p.m., and knowing that you have to get up too early and having doubt in your ability to hear your cellphone alarm is one of the best guarantees of insomnia– so I gave into sleeplessness and found myself reading Alice Walker’s blog regarding her trips to Rawanda, the eastern Congo, and Gaza. And I thought it’s not just the writer that writes with dignity in the face of tragedy, it’s also the people who live with dignity amidst tragedy.
http://www.alicewalker.info/
Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.
Alia Yunis 
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