Alex Poppe
Having worked in conflict zones such as Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine, Alex Poppe depicts fierce and funny women rebuilding their lives in the wake of violence. She is the award-winning author of four books of literary fiction and the USA TODAY bestselling Breakfast Wine, a memoir-in essays about her wild ride through Iraq, recently named a first runner-up for the Eyelands Book Awards and a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year and the American Writing Awards. Alex’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Literary Hub, HuffPost, and Informed Comment.
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What Stories Can Do: From NYC Actor To USAID Strategic Communications Advisor By Way Of Iraq
This lecture traces how the power of stories, chance encounters, and embracing risk transformed Alex Poppe’s life. She spent nearly a decade in northern Iraq, teaching and volunteering in humanitarian response. American audiences understand Iraq primarily through the lens of war and geopolitical abstraction. The heart of this talk depicts the specific, complicated, funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human stories of the people with whom Alex worked; stories that rarely make it into mainstream media, US television shows, or US films. In our current polarized political moment, these are essential stories.
USAID: What We Lost And What The Future Holds
Alex Poppe is a daughter of a refugee. After teaching in Iraq for almost a decade, she led communications for humanitarian aid and peacebuilding organizations before landing at USAID’s Democracy Delivers Initiative. The dismantling of USAID is a dismantling of soft power abroad. In this lecture, Ms. Poppe discusses the geostrategic importance of the Democracy Delivers Initiative, why it was established, what it accomplished, and what its closure means for the future of US security and prosperity.
Humanizing Conflict: Personal Stories From The Battlegrounds Of Ukraine, The West Bank, And Iraq
Alex Poppe has taught in conflict, post-conflict, and developing contexts such as Iraq, the West Bank and Ukraine. Women and youth bare the brunt of violent conflict, yet they are seldom involved in the decision-making to engage in war. This lecture highlights stories from the people living the day-to-day of conflict in Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine.
The Situation And The Story: Writing Memoir
Our lived experiences hold merit as a historical and personal record of the world in which we live. Alex Poppe is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the memoir Breakfast Wine: A Memoir of Chasing an Unconventional Life and Finding a Way Home. In this lecture, she will explain how to write personal stories that resonate beyond friends and family. Lecture participants will learn the difference between the situation and the story and leave with generative exercises they can try at home if they desire.