Shafaq

Creative writings and press concerns in Iraq were the subject of our interview with the expatriate Iraqi writer …

and journalist Jassim Almtair.

Q, How do you see the press in the fifties and the stages that followed compared with today state?

C: -.The Common thing between different generations in the past is that the Iraqi press has been an ongoing and continuing in all harsh and difficult periods, experienced by the progressive and democratic journalists who were trying to jump via various means and sacrifices to break black, red and yellow barriers which were put in front of them in various eras of oppression and coercion.

Q: - Diversity in innovation through the writings is certainly a case of decorating of the identity of the writer, but do not you see it affects the quality of writing negatively?

A: -There is nothing to compare between the creative diversity and the writer "decorating". Such a saying may become a kind of an insult to the creative writer. Diversity, in itself, is a form of talent that is refined with the test of time and with the author's breadth of vision.

Q: - Does Jassim Mohammed Almtair find himself more, in article writing or in a piece of literature or in the formulation or building a novel?

A: - I was and am still in search of serenity and tranquility of myself. Without that, there is no real possibility to show the mental part on a white paper that can be read and enjoyed by the reader. I tell you frankly that the state of my consciousness is completed by writing a novel or short story or even "a very short story," but in many cases, the sudden or non-sudden political, cultural crises, imposes the position of writing an article. So I write it.