Best Writing is an edited volume of student writing at Texas A&M University at Qatar. I have served as co-editor for the 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018 volumes, and we are currently working on the 2019 volume, A Thousand Ways to Begin. Each edition includes technical reports, academic essays, personal narratives, and poems written by undergraduates. We also have a university-wide photography contest for the cover photo.
We believe that “best writing” could mean many things: it could mean the best chemical engineering report written by a senior student working on an undergraduate research project with a faculty member, it could mean the best narrative essay written by a first-year student in one of the foundation ESL courses, or it could mean anything in between. We also strive to value language diversity and multiple literacies: we do not edit out ESL markers, and each edition has contained several poems in Arabic. The annual book launch parties reflect our multicultural emphasis by inviting parents and family members to join faculty, staff, and students in celebrating the achievements of the student authors.
Best Writing 2017 cover, a picture of a old open doorway with the subtitle “What Writing Can Do” 
Best Writing 2018 cover, a picture of a Qatari couple holding hands and walking towards an open doorway, with the subtitle “Stories We Live By”
Pictures from Best Writing launch parties
Me speaking at the 2018 book launch 
Man, seated, wearing a white thobe and ghutra with black agal reading Best Writing 
Attendees of the Best Writing party seated listening to a speaker at the podium 
Female students, seated, wearing black abayas and shaylas, talking with each other and looking at Best Writing
Amy Hodges 