1998 Participants

Kofi ANYIDOHO is Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana, and just completed a term at the University as acting director of the School of Performing Arts, while serving as Administrator of the CODESRIA African Humanities Institute Program. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin. Best known as a poet, Dr. Anyidoho has published several poetry collections, including A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984), Earthchild (1985), and Ancestrallogic & Caribbeanblues (1993). He has also published several book chapters and scholarly essays in various journals, and edited works on African literatures, including The Word Behind Bars & The Paradox of Exile (Northwestern University Press, 1997) and a recent special issue of the journal Matatu. Dr. Anyidoho is currently President of the African Literature Association. His participation in the International Writing Program is supported by the Program in African Studies and the IWP.

Erendiz ATASÜ Sayron (born 1947, Ankara) published 4 collections of short stories that explore issues of feminism and gender before publishing her first novel, Dagin Oteki Yuzu (The Other Side of the Mountain), in 1996. The novel won the prestigious Orhan Kemal Prize that year, and is currently being translated into English. Her latest short story collection is titled Tas Ustune Gul Oymasi (Roses Engraved on Marble), and experiments with the short story genre in the context of feminist discussions of art, history and social change. Dr. Atasü currently works as a free-lance writer, and was formerly a professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Ankara University, where she received both her B.A. and her Ph.D. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Germán CARRASCO (born 1971, Santiago) is the author of Brindis (1994), which received a prize in the House of the Americas Contest in Cuba; and La insidia del sol sobre las cosas (Ediciones Dolmen, 1998). His works have also appeared in various anthologies, including Chilean Poetry Translated by Chilean Poets (1996), two publications from the University of Chile, and Perrrera Arte (1997, Lom Ediciones). His writing received, among other awards, the 1997 Jorge Tellier Prize from Dolmen Editions and the Municipalty of Las Condes and the University of Chile's Contest of Unpublished Works. Mr. Carrasco was educated in Languages and British Literature at the University of Chile, and was chosen for participation in literary workshops under José Donoso (also an IWP alumnus), the Pablo Neruda Foundation, and the Chilean Writers' Association. His participation in the IWP is supported by the Fundación Andes.

Bernardo Teixeira CARVALHO (born 1960, Rio de Janeiro) is a reporter and critic for Brazil's major daily newspaper. He is also a freelance consultant and translator for a prestigious Brazilian publishing firm. He is the author of three novels, Teatro (1998), Os Bêbados e os Sonâmbulos (1996; French edition, 1998); Onse (1965), and a collection of short stories, Aberração (1993; French edition, 1997). Educated at the Universidade de Sao Paulo and the Pontifica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Carvalho holds an M.A. in Arts and Communications, with a dissertation on German Romanticism and the New German Cinema. In addition to Portuguese and English, he speaks and writes fluent French and understands Spanish. His participation in the IWP is supported by the Vitae Foundation.

Fabián CASAS (born 1965, Buenos Aires) is a permanent contributor to the cultural section of Argentina's largest daily newspaper, Clarín, and is editor of the literary supplement; he formerly served as editor of the prestigious cultural magazine of Argentina's only leftist newspaper, Página 12. His first volume of poems, Tuca (1990), was chosen as the Poetry Book of the Year by Diario de Poesía en Argentina. Mr. Casas received first prize from the Argentina Authors' Society in 1992 and first prize from Columbia's Prometeo Foundation in 1994. His other publcications include El Salmón (The Salmon, 1995), Un Angulo del Mundo (One Angle of the World, 1994) and works in the anthologies Argentine Authors of the End of the Century and 70 Poetas Argentinos. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Mark Randall DAVIS (born 1955, Key West) is a staff writer with the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Enroute to Philadelphia, he worked at publications in Asheville and in Burlington, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida. His other experiences include work with the Associated Press, and, by his account "put in a few years in that peculiar perdition known as public relations." He also adds that for a while he delivered pianos for a living. He is participating in the program for a week on a CASE Fellowship.

Vasile GIRNET (born 1958, Leova) has been the director of Contrafort magazine, renowned as the strongest cultural periodical in Moldava, for the past 4 years. He has published one novel (The Witness, 1988) and two books of poetry (Sick Landscape, 1988 and Character in the Forgotten Garden, 1992), and his poetry can be found in various anthologies, including the French Une Antologie de la Poésie Moldave and L'Esprit des Péninsules, the German Neue Literatur, and the Italian Young Romanian Poetry. Mr. Girnet worked as an editor in the publishing house Hyperion from 1983-1990, and then as editor-in-chief of the same publisher from 1990-1994. He currently serves as Moldova's representative to the International PEN Organization. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Anastasiya Sergeyevna GOSTEVA (born 1975, Moscow) received the prestigious first award of the Moscow journal Znamya (Banner) for her short novel "Samurai's Daughter," which is forthcoming from the Moscow English-language magazine Glas. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Smena, Arion and Chemistry and Life. Ms. Gosteva was educated in the Physics Department of the Moscow State University, and currently works in the international office of Barin's Realty Company. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Phan Trieu HAI (born 1969, Binh Dinh Province) won the award for story of the year from Youth Magazine for his most recent collection of short stories, Aco Mot Nguoi Nam Tren Mai Nha (A Man Lying on the Roof, Writers' Publishing House, 1997). He is the author of three other collections of short fiction, including the prize-winning Nhung Linh Hon Lac (The Lost Souls, Youth Publishing House, 1995) and Quan 'O Rung (The Wild-Beef Restaurant, Youth Publishing House, 1995). Many of Mr. Hai's short stories have been translated into English for Vietnam News, the Vietnamese English-language newspaper. He currently works as Assistant to the General Manager of Nissho Iwai Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

HAN Kang (born 1970, Kwang-ju) began her writing career in 1993, with the publication of a number of poems. The same year, she graduated from Yon-sei University, where she studied Korean Language and Literature. In 1994, her poems won a prize in the annual literary contest held by Seoul-Shinmun, the national newspaper. Since then, however, Ms. Han has been concentrating more on fiction than on poetry. After publication of a number of her texts, her first book of short stories, The Love of Yeosu, was published in 1995. Her first novel, The Black Deer, was published this summer. Her participation in the IWP is funded by the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation.

Beatrice KOBOW (born 1977, Scherzingen, Switzerland) began working as a freelance journalist for the Südkurier/Korstanz when she was very young. Since that time, she has worked as a journalist for two newspapers, the Südkurier/Singen and the Tagesspiegel/Berlin. She has published her prose in various magazines in Germany, including Kabeljau, the magazine of the Literaturinstitut, where she got her Diploma in Prose and Poetry. Ms. Kobow has also written prose for radio production. She has received prizes and fellowships from the Leipziger Literaturstipendium and the Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Her participation in the IWP is supported by a grant from Joan E. Vander Naald Egenes, the Deutscher Literaturinstitut Leipzig, and by the German government.

Agnieszka KOLAKOWSKA (born 1960, Lodz) is widely published as a translator from Polish and French into English. Some of her numerous translations include Oni by Teresa Toranska (Collins-Harvill), Poverty by Bronislaw Geremek (Blackwell), Tales from Lailonia by her father, Leszek Kolakowski (Chicago), and a book of essays by Leszek Kolakowski which is forthcoming from Penguin. Her translations have appeared in numerous magazines, both popular and academic, and she has published articles and reviews in such journals as The Salisbury Review and The Times. Ms. Kolakowska was educated in Philosophy and Classics at Yale University, Columbia University, and The University of Cambridge, and has spent the last decade working on various education projects in Eastern Europe. She is fluent in English, French, Hebrew, and Polish, and also speaks and reads German, Greek, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the Jurzykowski Foundation.

Olga Stanislavovna MUKHINA (born 1970, Moscow) has written five plays which have been produced in Russia and elsewhere, and have been translated into English, French, German, Cezch, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Croatian and Korean. Her play Tanya-Tanya is currently running at five different venues in Eastern Europe, including Fomenko's Workshop in Moscow, the Satire Theater in St. Petersburg, and Prague's On Zabrodle. The play received the First Drama Debut Award in the Moscow Debuts Festival, and Ms. Mukhina was proclaimed best playwright by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Her play Yu was produced in Moscow and Tatarstan, and won an award from the magazine Playwright. Her plays have been published in magazines such as Playwright and Contemporary Drama. She currently works as a program editor for the TV channel TNT. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Andras PETOCZ (born 1959, Budapest) has published numerous books of poetry, among them Betupiranis (Letter Pyramid, 1984), Lathatatlan jelenlet (Invisible Presence, 1990), Az irogepelt felelem (The Typed Fear, 1992) and Csutoras Gergely ebresztese (Wake up, Gergely Csutoras!, 1991), a book of poems for children. He has also published collections of his essays, written and directed two video films, and produced recordings of acoustic poetry. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest, and has worked as a literary magazine editor, and as editor and publisher of Medium-Art, an underground literary periodical active during the communist regime. Mr. Petocz also served as leader of the Medium-Art Studio, a center for experimental art. He has won a number of prizes for his writing, including, in 1990, the Robert Graves Prize for best Hungarian poem of the year. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Igal SARNA (fiction writer, cultural journalist, Israel; born 1952, Tel Aviv) received the IBM Prize for Tolerance for a series of articles about Iranian political refugees in an Israeli prison, and his biography of the Israeli poet Yona Wallach (Keter Publishing Co., 1993) was on the Israeli best-seller list for several months. His novel The Memory Hunter was published by Am Oved in 1997. His collection of short stories, Israel, Another Landscape has been translated into Italian and French. After fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Mr. Sarna was one of the founding members of Peace Now. He has been on the editorial board of Israel's most popular daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot since 1986. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Mahmoud SHUQAIR (fiction writer, playwright, West Bank/Palestine; born 1941, Sawahra) has published numerous books of fiction for adults and children, including, most recently, Qalat Marian, Qalalfata (Said Marian, Said the Boy, The Union of Palestinian Writers, 1996) and Oghniet Al Mahar (The Song of Oysters, Dar Al-Quds, 1995). He is currently working on a novel, Al-Madina Thatafajren Ba'Id (The City of Faraway Dawn), as well as an autobiography and scripts for five television series. In 1990 he received a prize from the Association of Jordanian Writers. Mr. Shuqair studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Damascus, and currently works as chief editor of Dafater Thaqafieh (Cultural Notebook) and as Director General in the Department of Literature at the Ministry of Culture in Ramallah. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Jurate SUCYLAITE (fiction writer, poet, Lithuania; born 1959 Panevezys) began writing and publishing her prose and poetry at a very early age. Her first novel was published in a state magazine when she was 17; around the same time she was one of the winners of the Soviet Union's children's literature competition. In medical school, she was an active participant in the movement of Lithuanian medical poets. In addition to working as a psychiatrist, Dr. Sucylaite currently works as a member of the Lithuanian Writers' Union and publishes her work in many magazines and newspapers. She first published a book of essays in 1990, followed by three poetry books, in 1992, 1994 and 1996. Sher participation in the IWP is supported by CEC ArtsLink Residencies.

U Pe Myint (fiction writer, Burma/Myanmar; born 1949, Rakhine State, Myanmar) has published over twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, and translated works, including, among many others, Those Who Sell "Things" for Human Use and other stories, winner of the 1995 National Literary Award. Some of his other original and translated works include On Death and other short stories (1993), Normal Mind and Normal Behaviour (a collection of articles on Applied Psychology, 1993), Ward Number Six (translation 1977, original by Anton Chekhov) and First Love (translation 1988, original by Ivan Turgenev). Mr. U was educated in medicine at the Institute of Medicine in Yangon, and in journalism at the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation in Bangkok. He worked as a medical practitioner for 11 years, and now serves as editor for two publishing houses, Sarpaylawka Bookhouse and Myanmar Book Publishing House. His participation in the IWP is supported by the IWP. His name is pronounced /oo/ /pay/ /myent/.

Ayeta Anne WANGUSA (fiction writer, editor, Uganda; born 1971, Kampala) had her first novel, Memoirs of a Mother (Femrite, 1998), published this year to great acclaim in Ugandan literary circles. She is an active member of the Uganda Writers Association and the Uganda Women Writers Association, and currently works as an editor for The New Vision Newspaper, Uganda's leading daily newspaper, where she specializes in writing book reviews and features. Ms. Wangusa was educated at Makerere University, where she received her M.A. in Literature in 1996. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.

Emil ZOPFI (fiction writer, Switzerland; born 1943, Wald) has published seven novels, most recently Kilchenstock, der Bergstruz in den Köpfen (Limmat Verlag, 1996), and numerous children's books, collections of stories and essays, among them Die Fabrikglocke, Vom Aufstand der Glarner Stoffdrucker gegen die Zeit (Limmat Verlag, 1994), Sanduhren im Fels, Erzählungen und Reportagen (Limmat Verlag, 1994), and Der Computerdieb (Benziger Verlag, 1986). Mr. Zopfi is the author of nine radio plays as well. His work is much acclaimed in Switzerland, and his many awards include Cultural and Literary Awards from the Swiss Alpine Club, Canton and City Awards of Zurich, a National Award for Children's Story and an award from the Pro Helvetica Foundation. Mr. Zopfi currently works teaching creative writing workshops. His participation in the IWP is supported by the Swiss government.

 

Happening Now

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  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

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  • “I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury.

  • In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

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