Qais Akbar Omar Speaks During Visiting Writer Series

On Wednesday, May 7, author Qais Akbar Omar came to St. Sebastian’s as part of the Visiting Writer series and spoke to our students about his childhood experience of growing up in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban and the subsequent war as chronicled in his memoir "A Fort of Nine Towers."

Before the lecture, Mr. Omar visited classrooms including Adam White's freshman writing class and Dean Adams’s junior literature class. Given the traumatic nature of his childhood in Kabul, Mr. Omar talked about the value of writing as therapy, explaining that he hadn’t intended his life story to turn into a book. He started writing to lift himself out of a depression brought on by PTSD, and in two months he wrote 800 pages. It was only several years later that he decided to return to his manuscript, trim it by half, and sell it to an American publisher. Mr. Omar’s lecture included slides and videos that explained the modern history of Afghanistan and how his family was forced to endure changing regimes, constant warfare, and oppressive laws. He spoke with impressive openness about the atrocities but managed to deliver plenty of warmth and humor as well. After fielding a round of questions from the students, Mr. Omar received a long ovation from the student body—a clear show of appreciation for Mr. Omar’s inspirational story.