CECILE SARRUF

A writer writes -- with or without pen to page.

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At three, I would sit at my mother’s feet and watch her paint on canvas.  I had no toys. I had no coloring books; just blank sheets of paper to create my own world on. I did not read nor write English until the age of six, when I first entered a parochial school. I had to unlearn French and relearn it when our family moved to Quebec. 

Back in California, an English teacher caught me gazing out the window and gave me a copy of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. I was thirteen. I tried my own hand at writing a story and my mother snatched the notebook out of my hands, “what are you writing?” A story, I told her. With an incredulous look in her eye, she took it away. By the time I hit high school, I identified as an artist, musician and theater lover.

I was fourteen when I wrote my first ever piece, a short funny essay on a neighboring boy. To my surprise, the class broke out in laughter. I learned the power of the pen.

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I was a two time art scholarship recipient with 100 pieces of finished artwork by the time I turned 19. I continue to paint and share my work through local gallery showings. 

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Once I graduated with a master's in creative writing in 2003, I began teaching English in an Islamic school in Southeast Los Angeles. It was here that I accepted an invitation to Lebanon from a fellow teacher. Some call it luck. I call it fate. If it weren’t for Lebanon, I would not have written a full complete memoir of my experiences (which seeks publication). Today, more than ever, it speaks to the strength of the human spirit, my roots and a great people in need of voice in American literature.

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By 2016, I was in a dark place and fortunate enough to become an active member of the writing community in Laguna Beach, California when joining Third Street Writers. It is here that I found comradeship and opportunity as an editor and writer for Beach Reads, a series of poems, fiction, nonfiction, art and photography. 

I've been an active participant in its public readings at the Festival of the Arts with my published work in Art Inscribed, an annual anthology of ekphrastic writings. I enjoy the exploration of art and writing, given the fact that I'm a visual artist and writer. 

Currently, I am the Third Street Writers workshop chairperson, while running writing workshops on occasion. But first and foremost is my dedication to the writing craft itself and the shaping of my own voice on the page. Below, please find an excerpt from my book seeking publication: Kitchen in Beirut: a Memoir. 

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 "If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it." ~ Toni Morrison

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