is director of the independent weekly, Motion d'Information. His extensive knowledge of African politics and world affairs comes from long experience as head of the foreign news departments for periodicals in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, as well as his association with the ANB-BNA news agency in Brussels. He holds a law degree from the University of Bordeaux (France), and in post-graduate studies in law (the diplome d'etudes superieures) from the Faculty of Law and Economic Studies in Dakar. One of his country's most distinguished critics, Mr. Adotévi is known throughout the region for his novel Sacrilege a Mandali, and for such essays as L'Apartheid et la societe international ("Apartheid and International Society"). His participation in the IWP is supported by the US Information Agency's International Visitor Program.
is considered one of the most interesting contemporary writers in his country today. The author of five books, his novel The Life of Ferret was short-listed for Russia's equivalent of the Booker Prize; his latest novel is Vladimir Chigrintsev. Educated at the Moscow State University, Mr. Aleshkovskiy was a scholar at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington, D.C. in 1989 when his program there was interrupted by the breakup of the Soviet Union. He is particularly interested in the American Midwest and the American South (since his novels are set in the Russian provinces), and he'd like to write a book of essays on the American countryside. Two international publications of his work are underway, one in Frankfurt and another in the United States. He is a grantee of the USIA.
is an exciting voice in Polish drama, specializing in highly original dramatic miniature forms of radio theater. Some of her work has been translated into German and appeared on the Polish Radio 3 and the Sud Deutsche Rundfunk. Her publications include When the Mind's Asleep, the Answering Machine Turns On (for Dialog, 1993); The Passion in the Bottle ( forDialog, 1995); (for Format, 1991). She holds the M.A. in the theory of culture from the University of Wroclaw. During a previous tourist visit to the United States, Ms. Amejko says, she spent hours in the Museum of Broadcasting listening to old radio plays. She is chief editor of a non-commercial student radio station in Wroclaw, a position she has held since 1987. She is a USIA grantee.
is a lecturer of literature and journalism at the University of Vina del Mar, and a columnist for Santiago's leading newspaper El Mercurio. Among his widely published novels are Quién mató a Cristian Kustermann? (Santiago: 1993), Der Schluessel liegt in Bonn (Berlin: 1995), Boleros en La Habana (Buenos Aires: 1995), and El Aleman de Atacama, forthcoming in November. He studied at the University of Chile and the University of Havana, studying Latin American and Spanish literature and social anthropology. He has worked extensively in Bonn and Berlin as a translator, a foreign correspondent, chief editor of the magazine Desarrollo y Cooperación in Bonn, and moderator for a program on Deutsche-Welle TV. He has received the Artes y Letras prize, and the Municipal Prize for Literature from the City of Valparaíso. He is supported by a grant from the Fundación Andes.
is the author of nine novels, one volume of short stories, and one collection of essays. Born in Chile, he lived in Cuba, East Germany, West Germany, and Sweden before coming to the United States in 2000. He was an IWP fellow in 1996, and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Iowa, where he now teaches Latin American literature and creative writing and leads a Spanish-language fiction workshop. He also writes columns for La Tercera and the New York Times Syndicate. His work has been published throughout Latin America as well as in Croatia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the US. His last novel, Pasiones griegas, was voted “Best Novel Published In Spanish In 2006” by the National People’s Publishing House of China and the Association of Chinese Hispanists. Currently he is working on a novel to be released in 2008.
began publishing poetry in literary magazines in 1989; her first poetry collection, Kufome Lulesh, appeared in 1993, and it received first prize at the Puglia Albania competition. Her volume of poems, Ndodhi ne Shpirt, was published in Tirana in 1995. She has taken part in various poetry competitions, and is a member of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania. She is a literature graduate from the University of Tirana and is currently manager for the poetry program sponsored by the Soros Foundation. Ms. Arapi will assume her IWP fellowship in November. Her residency at the IWP is provided by ArtsLink/Citizen Exchange Council.
is the 1993 recipient of the Zinaida Lazda Award (granted by the US-based Association of Latvians Abroad), and the Klavs Elsbergs Award in 1994, which resulted in the publication of her book, Akskirtie darzi (Uguns Publishing House, Riga) in 1995. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications in her country, including the magazines Draugs, Jauna Gaita, and the newspapers Latvijas Jaunatne, Diena, and Nakts. She has been a member of the Riga Young Writers Association since 1992. Anna Auzina and Gundega Repse are the IWP's first representatives from Latvia. Her participation in the program is through the support of ArtsLink/Citizen Exchange Council.
is associate professor of philosophy at the Vilnius Pedagogical University, where he also directs a writing project. He graduated from Vilnius University with a diploma in psychology and philosophy, and earned the Ph.D. in philosophy in 1993. He holds a diploma for postgraduate studies in history and the philosophy of art from the Central European University of Prague. The author of five books of poetry, his works have enjoyed wide distribution: Zalias Paukistis ("The Green Bird", 1984) had a run of 30,000 copies), 20,000 copies of Rugsejo Zvaigzoe ("The Star of September"); and 25,000 copies of Naktis ("Night"). At least forty pop songs have been set to music from his texts. He writes for adults as well as children, and has taken part in the country-wide "Poetry Spring" Festival since 1982. Dr. Degesys is at the IWP through a grant from the US Information Agency.
is lecturer in English at the University of Colombo and a freelance journalist for the Sunday Times. She has also served as a script writer for the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, is a violinist with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, and has performed the sitar on Sri Lanka's national television. Her short story collection Driftwood was named the best collection of short stories (in manuscript) by the National Arts Council of Sri Lanka in 1990. She has been active in introducing Sinhala writers to the English language-reading public through her weekly column. She is a grantee of the USIA.
is the author of three novels, among them Fabula de la inmortalidad ("Immortality Fable"; UNAM, Mexico, 1995, Collec. Rayuela Nacional); and "Amor en aerosol" ("Love in aerosol"), which was a finalist in the "Agustin Yanez" competition held by the Mortiz-Planeta publishing house for the best novel of 1993. Her short fiction has been extensively anthologized throughout Latin America and Spain. She's also written adventure stories for teenagers, Dias de pinta ("Skipping School"). She studied pedagogy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and did Ph.D. studies in education in Madrid. She has taught English and French, and at present teaches writing skills, literary theory and critical reading at the National Center for the Promotion of Literature. She is at the University of Iowa through a fellowship from the AT&T Foundation.
is felt to be perhaps the most important young writer in Argentina today. He is editor of the prestigious magazine Pagina 30. The widespread impact of his work is felt through his novels which have been described as "compelling, often moving, meditations" on the influence of North American culture on Argentine society. His novel, Historia Argentina, is a humorous analysis of Argentina's cultural development in the past decade; his new novel Esperanto is scheduled for publication by Gallimard in France, and his short fiction has been anthologized in Chile, Spain, Venezuela, and England. He looks forward to completing his next two novels, tentatively titled Ciencias Exactas and Mambru, while he is at the University of Iowa. The USIA is providing his fellowship.
studied architecture in Sao Paulo and comparative literature in Paris and now teaches at the University of the Amazon in Manaus. His novel, The Tree of the Seventh Heaven (Atheneum, New York, 1994; translated from the Portuguese by Ellen Watson) was first published in 1989 and was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in Brazil, the Jabuti prize for the best Brazilian novel. He is also the author of a collection of poetry and texts, Amazonas: um rio entre ruinas (Diadorim, Sao Paulo, 1978), numerous essays and reviews, and his short fiction has appeared in anthologies abroad. Most recently Mr. Hatoum was a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, an appointment he will resume upon completing his fellowship at the University of Iowa. His participation in the IWP is supported by the Vitae Foundation of Brazil.
(b. Hungary) is editor at the Aoss Romboid Association of Writers, and a well-known poet and translator. She has published seven books of poetry, as well as translations of such poets as Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The themes of her work focus on the relationships between men and women, and she is particularly interested in poetry written by contemporary American women. Ms. Haugova is a graduate of the Faculty of Agronomy in Bratislava, and is associated with the Slovak P.E.N. Center and the Club of Independent Writers. In addition to Slovak and English she speaks German and Hungarian. She was previously affiliated with the Slovensky Spisovatel Publishing House as editor. Ms. Haugova is an appointee of the USIA.
writes under the pen name of Kim Suh-Jung. She teaches at several colleges in Seoul and is a researcher at the Korea-Froebel Institute of Child Education. She holds the Ph.D. from the Department of Creative Literature at Chung Ang University. Dr. Kim is the author of A Conference of Ghosts (1991) and Nabi, Sabi, Bappi, the Three Kittens, (1994). She is also an active literary translator, with over 25 works from English and German into Korean. Dr. Kim is attending the IWP through the joint sponsorship of the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation and the University of Iowa.
is the author of a collection of short stories, Erotopolis, Erotic Rocks (Buenos Aires: Ediciones La Flor, 1994). She studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires, and teaches French at the language laboratory of that University and at several secondary schools. She has worked for cultural magazines such as Cultura Diario Sur, Revista con V. de Vian, Relatos El Libertino, and also worked for a section of the Pagina 12 newspaper. The Fundacion Antorchas is providing her fellowship.
founded the KTO Theatre in Krakow in 1977, and during Poland's martial law served as editor-in-chief of a unique, orally-presented literary journal, NaGlos ("Speaking Out"); the magazine now continues in printed form. Dr. Maj is assistant professor of contemporary literature at the Jagiellonian University. He published eight poetry collections, among them Taka wolnosc ("That Sort of Freedom"; MAW, Warsaw, 1980) and Swiatlo ("The Light"; Krakow, 1994). His poetry has been translated into twelve languages and appeared in The Seneca Review and Salmagundi among others. His US translators include Czeslaw Milosz and Stanislaw Baranczak. He received the Koscielscy Foundation Literary Award (Geneva, 1984), the "Solidarnosc" Cultural Award in 1983 and 1984, and the PEN Club poetry award of 1995. The Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation is providing Dr. Maj's support.
has published numerous books and articles and is very active in Moroccan literary circles. He is professor of philosophy and translation at the Ben M'Sick Faculty of Letters in Casablanca. He earned his M.A. degree in the history of philosophy from the Faculty of Letters in Rabat. He is the author of a fiction collection, Tarik (Ibn Zaid) Did Not Conquer Andalusia. His short fiction has been translated into French, English, Spanish, Russian, and Norwegian. In 1974 he launched the Arabic magazine New Culture, and has written articles for specialized journals on philosophy and translation, as well as newspaper commentary. He has translated many books from English and Spanish into Arabic. Mr. Messnaoui is the first Moroccan writer to attend the IWP. The USIA is supporting his participation.
teaches playwriting, directing, and creative writing in the drama department of the University of Skopje. Her most recent play, The Place Where I Have Never Been, was staged this year in Ljubljana (Slovenia). She received her theatre and film training at the University of Ljubljana, and earned the M.A. from the Kiril I Metodij University in Skopje. Her many publications include a collection of plays in English, A Dream and Other Works (Metaforum, Skopje, 1996); several screenplays including The Disappearance of Susana Arsova (1993). Most of her performances have toured in Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, and Bosnia. She is the IWP's first representative from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and she is at the IWP through a grant from the USIA.
leads an international workshop for translators and researchers of Hungarian literature. As a young writer confronting the Communist system, he was unable to finish university and worked as a manual laborer for some years before starting a career as translator of Anglo-Saxon literature. Since then, he has been a freelance writer and translator of German and French works, in addition to translating the short fiction of Capote, Updike, Frost, and Ginsberg among others. He founded and co-owned a small publishing house, and worked on the editorial staff of various Hungarian literary reviews. He was the 1984 recipient of the Kassak Prize for Avant Garde Literature, the prestigious Attila Jozsef Prize in 1990, and held a scholarship from the French Ministry in Education in 1991. He is interested in Sufism and its impact on mystical writing. He is a USIA grantee at the IWP.
works with an outstanding publisher for children's books, Jacaranda Designs, the only publishing house in Kenya which actively recruits Kenyan writers and illustrators to produce high-quality juvenile literature by and about Kenya and its traditions. She is also currently editor of The Young Nation. She was recently chosen by the Forum for African Women Educationalists to write six textbooks highlighting African woman scientists for the upper elementary level. Ms. Mwangi holds the M.A. in literature from the University of Nairobi and belongs to the African Council for Communication Education, the Kenya Oral Literature Association, and the organization for Youth, Information, Education and Communication. In addition to her native Kikuyu she speaks Kiswahili. She is attending the IWP through the a grant from the US Information Agency.
is a professor and director of the Bolivian National University Institute for the Study of the Humanities. His works have received international recognition: in 1991 he received the first prize in radio playwriting granted by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Koln (WDR) of Germany; his work was later broadcast in Spanish, German, and Flemish. Among his other honors are the first prize at the national Franz Tamayo poetry competition in 1988. He is the author of five literary works, primarily poetry, with a new collection in progress. Dr. Orihuela earned the Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, Davis. Since 1982 he has taught creative writing, Latin American literature, 18th-century American literature, and playwriting. He was visiting professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and previously taught at the National University of San Andres in La Paz.
(fiction writer, Malaysia; born in Malacca) is associate professor at the Malaysian National University, and teaches creative writing at the Malaysian National Academy. His publications include several collections of short fiction, among them Dunia Belum Berakhir (1989); Datangnya Macam Malaikat (Heinemann Books, 1982); Jeneral (PF 13, 1992). Dr. Othman, a graduate of the Sultan Idris Teacher's Training College in Perak, has written many books on literary theory, creative writing, children's literature and Malaysian literary history. His latest book, forthcoming from Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, is Landas Kreativiti: Penulisa Cerpen. He is actively involved in the regional scene, leading workshops, judging competitions, giving talks throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. The Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia is providing his grant support.
(fiction writer, Russia) has received considerable recognition in international literary circles. He received the Russian equivalent of the Booker Prize in 1993, which led to a workshop on creative writing held in Great Britain. New Directions Books published a collection of stories, as well as The Yellow Arrow; his novel Omon Ra is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. These books have appeared simultaneously abroad, and include another novel, The Life of Insects (forthcoming in Britain, France, the Netherlands), and a short fiction collection is coming out in Japan, The Blue Lantern. His other works are a fiction collection in two volumes, Tambourine to the Upper World and Tambourine to the Lower World. He is taking part in the IWP through the US Information Agency.
is a Reader in Commonwealth literature in the Department of English at the University of Poona. His publications include a collection of poems, Slide Show (Leeds: Peepal Tree Books, 1992); short stories, One Day I Locked My Flat in Soul-City (Delhi: Rupa & Co., 1995); plays, The Wisest Fool and Other Plays (Bombay: The Brown Critique, 1996). He has edited several anthologies and books of criticism. He earned his Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Bombay, with a thesis on the attitudes toward love and nature of Whitman and Tagore. He received the Nehru Centenary Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Government of India, and a travel fellowship from India's National Academy of Letters. Dr. Rao is currently at work on a biography of the Indian poet Nissim Ezekiel. He attends the IWP as a fellow of the AT&T Foundation.
is one of the most popular writers of Latvian fiction in a country where culture is a major component of everyday life. Her collections of stories include (in Latvian) A Concert for My Friends in an Ash Box (Riga: Lesima Publishers, 1987); A Bestiary for Our Times (Riga: Literatura un Maksla Publishers, 1992); The Apocrypha of Shadows (Riga: Preses Nams Publishers, 1996). Ms. Repse is a graduate of the Department of Art History and Theory at the Latvian Academy of Art, and held a grant from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Art, and Research in 1995. She has been a literary editor for the Labrit newspaper, and correspondent and columnist for two Latvian magazines and a daily. She and Anna Auzina are the first Latvian writers to attend the IWP. She is at the IWP as a grantee of the USIA.
coordinates the Script Writers' First Workshop in Mexico and works extensively in film and television production. She trained in numerous courses and workshops at the University of California in Los Angeles and at an institute for cinematography and script writers in Washington, D. C. Among her film credits are the scripts for Los platos nunca se acaban ("The Plates Never End"); several feature film adaptations, including Cilantro y Perejil ("Coriander and Parsley"), a comedy feature film that is currently being filmed by Mexican director Rafael Montero. Her publications include La reina de nunca jamas ("The Nevermore Queen," 1991), and a collection of children's tales, La tortuga veloz ("The Faster Turtle," Corunda & Fonacult Editions, Mexico), which enjoyed a wide distribution. She is an IWP grantee of the USIA.
is a well-known figure in the Netherlands for his widely read commentary in major newspapers and his participation in literary and cultural debates on national television. He studied philosophy and political science at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1982 he has published articles in numerous Dutch weeklies and newspapers and has worked for several radio stations. Since his debut in 1991 he published four collections of essays and stories. He is a member of the Dutch Rushdie Defense Committee and of the European Writers' Parliament. Stephan Sanders is known for his sharp, independent and bright comments in Holland's leading newspaper de Volkskrant. He is attending the IWP on a full grant from the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature.
is the author of books published world-wide; two thirds of his fiction has been short-listed for awards, including citations from the American Library Assocation and the New York Public Library, the Choysa Bursary for Children's Writers and the Esther Glen Medal. The author of thirty novels, twenty-three for children and young adults, Mr. Taylor has published three new books in 1996 alone: Circles (Penguin NZ); The Fatz Twins & the Haunted House (Harper Collins NZ), and Nick's Story (Longacre Press). A former school teacher and principal of the Ohakune School, he turned to writing full time in 1985. His first novel Episode came out in 1970, and since then his works have been published in multiple editions by Penguin, Scholastic, and others in Australia, the US, and Europe. He is a fellow of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.
is, because of her mass appeal, potentially "the next Orhan Pamuk." (Mr. Pamuk, Turkey's leading author, attended the IWP in 1985.) Her novels include Two Green Water Sables, Their Mothers, Fathers, Lovers, and the Others (written in 1991, issued in its 16th edition in 1996); and The Sound of Fishsteps (1993; 10th edition, 1996). Her short story collections have similarly undergone multiple reprintings. She earned the M.S. in biology from Haceteppe University in Ankara, and did graduate work in public health at the University of Michigan, and graduate studies in Norwegian and Ecology at the University of Bergen in Norway. She is currently editor for foreign literature at the Remzi Publishing House and a reviewer for the weekly edition of the daily, Cumhuriyet. She is jointly supported at the IWP by the USIA and the board of the Turkish Airlines.
is one of the most respected young authors of Vietnam and embodies the literary spirit of her native Hanoi and the contemporary vigor of Saigon, where she was raised. She is a medical doctor, specializing in neurology, at the Nguyen Trai Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. In 1994 the Youth Publishing House in Hanoi published two of her books for young people, O Nha and Hoi Cho; one of her short stories appeared in English translation in a recent issue of the University of Hawaii journal, Manoa. Described as "sharp, funny, humane," she is an artist who has won national respect in an arena where young writers are subjected to highly competitive scrutiny. Dr. Vang Anh is the IWP's first representative from Vietnam, and is sponsored by the US Information Agency.
is senior lecturer in the department of literature and linguistics at the University of Nairobi, Kikuyu campus. She earned the M.A. and the Ph.D. in English from Atlanta University. She is a Fulbright scholar at the University of Iowa, with a research project gathering material for a book or series of books for children. She has been collecting children's literature from griots, babysitters, parents, grandparents, and other sources, and would like to produce a series to be published first in English, then in Kiswahili and other Kenyan dialects. Dr. Wanambisi's publications include critical articles on the poetry of Okot p'Bitek, and on the role of women in Africa. She was the 1994-95 recipient of the Research Competition on Gender Issues in Eastern Africa, with a study on The Marginalization of Kenyan Women Literary Writers.
is one of a few Singaporean writers with an international following. His work has been widely anthologized in Asia, and his many distinctions include the Epoch Poetry Award (Taiwan, 1974); the China Times' Literary Award for non-fiction (1981); the Southeast Asia Writers Award (1984), the Cultural Medallion for literature from the Singapore Government in 1986, and the ASEAN Award in 1993. Dr. Wong is associate professor of Chinese literature at the National University of Singapore. He earned the Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and attended the International Writing Program in 1985. He has published six poetry collections, most recently, Poems of Mountains and Waters. He and his wife, poet Dan Ying, are on sabbatical from NUS, and will serve as visiting scholars at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
is a lecturer at the Chinese Language Proficiency Centre of the National University of Singapore. One of the best known women poets in the international Chinese community, Dan Ying was the 1995 recipient of the Southeast Asian Writers' Award (SEAWrite) and Singapore's National Book Development Council Book Award for Chinese Poetry in 1979 (for Poems of Taiji) and 1994 (for Ages on My Hairs). From the time she published her first two poetry collection in the late 1960s, Dan Ying's work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Kenneth Rexroth's The Orchid Boat: Women Poets of China (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972). She and her husband, poet and critic Wong Yoon Wah, are at the IWP on a sabbatical grant from the National University of Singapore.
is an art historian and journalist whose books on Spanish architecture and art are widely respected in the world scene. She is the author of two novels, En otros ojos ("In Other Eyes"; Alba Editorial, 1996), and The Everlasting Return (in progress), and a short story collection, Anima Animal. Her numerous texts for exhibition catalogs and her books on art history are published in London, New York, Madrid and Barcelona, with editions in German and Greek. She earned the MA in the history and criticism of modern art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; a diploma in international relations from the College of Journalism in London, and is a graduate in journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is a reviewer and critic for the leading Spanish newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia. She is an IWP grantee of the US Information Agency.
is a commissioned playwright with the Melbourne Theatre Company. Her one-act play Family Running for Mr. Whippy was nominated for the 1995 Best New Australian Play, and produced by the theatre companies of Melbourne and Sydney, and adapted for Australian national radio. The Australia Council gave her two grants to script the film Great Darkness Light. The film Sparks, for which she wrote the screenplay, won awards for best screenplay and best film at the 1990 Australian Film Institute Awards; the movie subsequently won prizes at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in France. She studied scriptwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and holds the BA from Murdoch University. She is currently writing a children's book commissioned by Fremantle Arts Press. She is at the IWP through the USIA.
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