2001 Participants

Yawo Weka ALADJI

Yawo Weka ALADJI (born 1941, Hanyigba-Duga) is assistant professor of the sociology of communications in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Lome, and director and publisher of Editions Haho. Dr. Aladji was formerly head of the publication section of Togo's Ministry of Information and was a journalist at Radio-Lome. His publications include La Voix de l'Ombre (1985) and La Mediation des Conseils de Presse et Organismes Similaires dans l'Afrique en Transition: Annales de l'Université du Benin (1998). The US Department of State is providing his participation in the International Writing Program.

Torunn BORGE

Torunn BORGE (born 1960, Oslo) is already considered an established and well-respected figure in Norwegian literary circles. She is a freelance writer and translator of articles, children's books and cartoons. Her most recent publication is the nonfiction work Fear of God (2000); her poetry collections include An Infinite Durability (1999) and The Interval (1997). She is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

Marius BUROKAS

Marius BUROKAS (born 1977, Vilnius) is a project manager and editor in Lithuania's largest public relations company, Viesuju Ryiu Partneriai; he is concurrently completing graduate studies in Lithuanian literature at Vilnius University. He is the author of the poetry collection Ideograms (1999); his poems have appeared in various Lithuanian, Finnish, and Russian journals. A second book of poems, Planning a Murder, is forthcoming in the autumn of 2001. The US Department of State is supporting his residency at the IWP.

Andrey Stanislavovich BYCHKOV

Andrey Stanislavovich BYCHKOV (born 1954, Moscow) is the author of Lovets (2000), which was short-listed for the prestigious Russian "Anti-Booker" Prize. He received the Einsenstein Prize in German in 1994, and his short stories have appeared in his country's most distinguished journals. He is attending the IWP on a grant from the US Department of State.

Rocco CARBONE

Rocco CARBONE (born 1962, Reggio Calabria) is a literary critic and cultural commentator for Rome's Il Messagero and Naples' Il Mattino, and L'Unita. Dr. Carbone's novels include Agosto (1993), Il Commando (1996) and L'Assedio (The Siege), 1998, and The Apparition, to be published this year. He is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

Norge ESPINOSA (b. 1971 Santa Clara) is the author of the poetry collections "Las breves tribulaciones" (1989) and "Los pequeños prodigios y Estategias del páramo" (2000) and of plays including "Romanza del lirio" (1996). Two of his poems, "Vestido de novia" (bridal gown) and "Dejar la isla" (leaving the island) are among the most widely anthologized poems by younger Cuban poets. Espinosa is the director of the bookstore Libreria El Ateneo, works as a production assistant for Revista Tablas, and is one of the leaders of Teatro El Publico. He has also been the organizer for the last three years of the Semanas del Arte Homoerotico, a weeklong gay and lesbian cultural event in Havana.

Vince FORD (fiction writer, New Zealand; b. 1969) has already won two awards for his two novels for children. His first book, 2Much4U (1999) received the 1998 Tom Fitzgibbon Award for best children's fiction by a previously unpublished author. He is currently working on a novel for a more adult audience. Scripting, managing, and presenting video productions is Mr. Ford's current occupation. He has previously worked as a Jackaroo on a 400,000 acre Australian property and a laborer in salt mines. More information on his works can be found at www.vuw.ac.nx/nzbookcouncil/writers/fordvince.htm. He lives in Gisborne on the East coast of New Zealand. He is taking part in the IWP through a grant from the Arts Council of New Zealand/Toi Aotearoa, and through the IWP.

Joy GOSWAMI (poet, India; b. 1954) writes in Bengali, and (since his debut with the collection Christmas and a Bunch of Winter Sonnets at 23), he has written over 800 poems that have been compiled in seventeen books; his other writing includes eight novels, and a collection of essays on modern poetry in India. He has twice received the Ananda Purashkar literary award: for his 1990 poetry collection Leaves of Fire, Are You Sleeping? and his novel written in verse, Those Who Were Wet By the Rain (1998). He is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

Nikolai Lachezarov GROZDINSKI (b. 1973, Sofia) is part-time lecturer in Tibetan language, history, and culture at the New Bulgarian University. He holds the diploma in musical composition from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His collection of short stories Lives of Idle Men and Lost Mystics , a bestseller, received a grant for a first publication from the Open Society Book Program in 2000; a novel, To Have a Nap on the Lap of the Great Sameness is in process of publication. The State Department is supporting his participation in the program.

Etgar KERET (b. 1967, Tel Aviv) has written books, short stories, and comedy for Israeli TV, and is a lecturer at Tel Aviv University's Department of Film. All his books have been bestsellers. His two short story collections have sold more than 100,000 copies, and over 40 short films have been produced based on his stories. His movie Skin Deep won the Israeli Oscar as well has first prize at several international film festivals. A film based on one of his stories received the 1998 American MTV Prize for best animated film. The US-Israel Educational Foundation is providing Mr. Keret's participation in the IWP.

Chris KEULEMANS (1960) lives in Amsterdam, Holland. He is a writer of prose, essays, plays and journalism. He has published three books. His novel 'A short walk in the hills' was longlisted for the Dutch national book award 1994. Two of his short plays, 'Albanians' and 'Belanov', were performed by independent theatre groups in Amsterdam and Utrecht. 'Lands', a radio-drama, was this year's Dutch entry to the Prix d'Europe. From 1995 to 1999, he was managing director of De Balie, centre for culture and politics in Amsterdam. Since then, he has traveled extensively, visiting countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland and the USA. His travel stories appear in de Volkskrant, a leading Dutch daily. Currently, he is working on a novel/website/tv-documentary, titled 'The American I never was'. Having been raised in American schools in Bagdad and Jakarta during the sixties, he now tries to imagine the life he would have lead had he grown up in America, not Holland.

Man-sik LEE (poet, Korea; b. 1953) is deputy professor at Kyungwon College and is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on T.S. Eliot at Korea University's Department of English Literature. Mr. Lee has written extensively on deconstruction as literary theory, and his translation of Jonathan Culler's On Deconstruction was selected as one of Korea's Best Scholarly Books of 1998. He has published two poetry collections: God's Baseball Game Ticket (1997) and On Poetry (1994). The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation and the University of Iowa are supporting his participation.

Medy LOEKITO (born 1962, Surabaya) is the Executive Secretary of the Shimizu Corporation, and the President of the Multimedia Literature Institute. Her poems have appeared in more than 15 anthologies, such as In Solitude (1993); Resonansi Indonesia (2000); Graffiti Gratitude (2001), and in many journals in Indonesia, as well as in Brunei Darussalam and Australia. Representative of the Republic of Indonesia in the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations since 1999. Her most recent project involves participating in research on the traditional Machiya wooden houses of Kyoto, together with scholars from 4 other Asian countries. She is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

Antonia LOGUE (1972, fiction writer, Ireland) is the author of Shadow Box (Grove/Bloomsbury Press), which won the Irish Times literary prize for fiction and was short listed for the John Llewellyn-Rhys Award and the Hawthornden Prize. She holds the masters degree from Trinity College in Dublin, and is a freelance journalist and literary critic for the Guardian, the Times, the Scotsman, the Irish Times, and the Sunday Independent. She is taking part in the IWP through support from the University of Iowa.

Aida NASRALLA (born 1958, Uhm el Fahm) is the pen name of Mahammeed Nasra. She teaches at the High School for the Arts in Naamat, and organized and ran a weekly salon for women poets and writers, serving as mentor for Arab women in Israel who wish to experiment with poetry and fiction. Most recently, she was the driving force behind an art exhibit, "Common Threads," that displayed the work of Jewish and Arab women artists side by side at the prestigious gallery of the Tel Aviv University. She has published over 40 short stories and 60 poems in various Arabic publications in Israel. The US Department of State is providing her participation in the IWP.

Khin Lay NYO. MBBS (b. 1953, Taunggyi) is public relations officer and content specialist of the Behavioral Change Communications Department for Population Services International in her country, and is an ophthalmologist by training. An author since 1979, Dr. Nyo has written more than a hundred short stories, articles, and poems, and published 25 novels. She has successfully broached highly sensitive subjects such as AIDS, using her novels as vehicles for incremental change in public awareness. The US Department of State is supporting her residency.

Thongbay PHOTISANE (born 1960, Svanakhet) directs and edits the only monthly literary magazine in Laos, and serves as second secretary of the Lao Writer's Association, editing its newsletter. His most recent short stories, "The Life of Love," "The Love of the Luang Prabang Song," "Life and Family" and "Song of Man" have appeared in Vannasin magazine, the monthly publication of the Lao Ministry of Information and Culture; these were also published as a book. He is the IWP's first representative from Laos. The first Laotian participant in the program, he is here through the US Department of State.

Mileta PRODANOVIC (b. 1959, Belgrade) is currently vice dean of the School of Painting at Belgrade's University of Arts; he is also lecturer in Studies of Culture and Gender at the Alternative Educational Network in Belgrade. Since 1980, Mr. Prodanovic has held more than thirty one-man exhibitions in the former Yugoslavia and in Europe. Most recent among his ten books are the short stories and travel fragments The Eye on the Road; two editions, also published in Croatia, of This Could Be Your Lucky Day; the novels Red Scarf, the Silk One and Dance the Monster on My Gentle Music. The US Department of State is providing his grant to the IWP.

Sergio Alejandro PUJOL (born 1959, La Plata), novelist and historian, writes for Argentina's most influential newspaper, ClarÌn, and is concurrently associate professor of 20th century history in the School of Journalism and Social Communication at the National University of La Plata. He is also the Buenos Aires correspondent for Jazz Notebooks magazine in Madrid and a member of the Argentine Association of Musicology. His most recent publications are: History of Dancing: from Tango Dancing Spots to Disco (1999), Diescepolo: an Argentine Biography (1997); Valentino in Buenos Aires: the Twenties and Show Business (1994). His book Jazz Down South was honored in 1995 by the National Secretariat of Culture in Argentina. ). He is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

Rehman RASHID (born 1955, Perak) is the author of Malaysia Journey, a best selling book that presents, in alternating fictional and nonfiction segments, reflections on Malaysian society since independence, and on the relations among Malaysia's three major ethnic groups. He also wrote Pangkor: Treasure of the Straits. He is currently at work on another novel. As a journalist, Mr. Rashid served as senior writer for Bermuda Business (Bermuda) and Asiaweek (Hong Kong), and leader writer for the Straits Times . He holds a bachelor of science in marine biology from the University of Swansea (Wales). He is at the IWP on a grant from the US Department of State.

Ben RICE (b. 1972, Tiverton, Devon) is the 2001 recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award. His first book, the novella Poppy and Dingan (2000), was very well received and is published in the US by Knopf, with rights sold in 20 countries around the world. His travels-through Europe, Asia and the Pacific, the Mediterranean-also include a year in Maine as a child, when his father was an exchange professor. At eighteen he taught English as a second language for a half year in the Czech Republic. He holds the M.A. with distinction from the University of East Anglia, his country's most competitive creative writing program. The US State Department provides his participation in the program.

Dariusz SOSNICKI (poet, Poland; born 1969, Kalisz) is editor at Empiz Publishers, Poznan. He has received several prestigious literary awards; his first poetry collection was honored as the "Best Debut" book of 1994. Mr. Sosnicki's second collection is described as "a weather-and-soul report," and he is regarded as a representative voice of his generation. His poetry and literary criticism are well anthologized; they are translated in Czech, English, and Slovenian, and have appeared in such journals as the Chicagi Review issue on New Polish Writing (vol. 46, nos. 3 and 4, 2000). He is in the IWP on a grant from the US State Department.

Sitok SRENGENGE (poet, Indonesia; born 1965, Grobogan, Central Java) is Program Coordinator for the Utan Kayu Community in West Java; he is also a lecturer at the Jakarta Arts Institute, a literature teacher for Eksotika Karmawiggangga and editor of the Kalam Cultural Journal. His work has appeared in 2001: Secrets Need Words (ed. Harry Aveling, to be published by the Ohio University Press); the Nonsens Poetry anthology, and various poetry and short fiction anthologies in Indonesia. Last year, Mr. Srengenge was cited as one of his country's leaders in society in culture by Asiaweek magazine. The US Department of State is supporting his participation in the IWP. His name is pronounced [SEE tohk shrehn GEHN geh].

SU Tong / 苏童 (fiction writer, China; b. 1963, Suzhou) is the author of the novel Rice (Penguin Books). His novella Raise the Red Lantern was made into an internationally acclaimed film that was nominated for an Academy Award. Mr. Su graduated from Beijing Normal University with a degree in Chinese literature. He now lives in Nanjing. The University of Iowa is providing his participation in the IWP.

Viet Huu TRAN (poet, Vietnam; born 1963, Hanoi) writes poetry exploring the sensibility of post-1975 Vietnamese youth, and their complex attitudes toward contemporary Vietnam in transition. He has received a number of awards for his careers in poetry and in journalism. He is Editor of the Sunday literary and arts supplement of the Tien Phong newspaper, and also writes for other leading journals directed toward youth. He also works as a literary translator. A miscellany including critical work is being published early next year. He is at the IWP through support from the US Department of State.

David TURASHVILI (fiction writer, Georgia, b. 1966, Tbilisi) is lecturer in literary history at Tbilisi State University. In 1989, he was one of the leaders of the student protest action taking place at the David Gareja monasteries in East Georgia. His first novels, published in 1988, are based on the turmoil of those events. The premier of his play Jeans Generation was held in May this year. Mr. Turashvili's other publications include the travelogues Katmandu (1998) and Known and Unknown America (1993), and two collections of short fiction and movie scripts; his first collection of short fiction is Merani (1991). The US State Department is providing his participation in the program.

U Thu Maung, also known as U Bala (fiction writer, Burma; b. 1951, Yangon) has written 32 novels, and numerous short stories and articles. He received the Mandalay literary award for ìMy Fatherís Motherî in 1999. The son of Burmese film director U Tha Du, Thu Maung has starred in 43 films and won Burmaís Academy Award for best actor in 1990; he has also directed five films. He embarked on a career as classical singer in 1975, and added pop music to his repertoire, becoming well known. He earned a degree in Diesel Engineering. Since 1996 he has devoted all his time to writing.

Shashi WARRIER (fiction writer, India; born 1959, Ottapalam, Kerala State) started his career as an economist and a software specialist in the early 1980s. Mr. Warrier's writing career began in 1994 with a juvenile fiction work The Hidden Continent (Penguin/Puffin), and he moved on to thrillers including Night of the Krait and The Orphan . Sniper was published by Harper Collins in 1999. He has also published numerous short stories on an Internet site, "Rediff on the Net." He provides regular reviews for various Indian journals. His participation in the IWP is through the US Department of State.

Marek ZALESKI (essayist, critic, Poland; born 1952, Lomza) is deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly Res Publica Nowa in Warsaw, and a researcher for the Institute for Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1982 he has published numerous articles in Polish dailies, magazines, and periodicals. He is the author of several books of literary history and criticism, including The Second Avant-Garde Adventure (1984, now in its second edition); Woe or Wit? and Forms of Memory. His scholarship specializes in the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz. The US Department of State is providing his support in the IWP.

Antonije ZALICA (fiction writer, filmmaker, the Netherlands, b. 1959, Sarajevo). Studied comparative literature and philosophy at Sarajevo University. Writes poetry, prose, plays. Published a collection of poems (TILT, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1984) as well as short stories in various magazines. His novel Trag zmajeve sape (The Print of a Dragonís Paw) was published in 1995 by B92 in Belgrade, and has been published translation in Polish, Dutch and German (under the title Yellow Snow). One of his short stories is published in the anthology of the satirical stories from Eastern and Central Europe Een paard dat Pools praat (Soeku, Utrecht 1998). His short films Travelling Children and Eight Years After (co-directed with Ademir Kenovic), parts of the SA-life film collection, were awarded the Golden Grain Ear at the 1993 Bienale del cinema per la pace in Pisa. In 1994 his short film Angels in Sarajevo, one of SAGAís productions, was awarded the European Film Academy's Felix Documentary Award.

Ghassan ZAQTAN (poet, West Bank; b. 1954, Beit Jala) is co-founder and director of the House of Poetry in Ramallah. He is chief editor for the Al-Shua'ra (Poets) quarterly and writes weekly columns for two newspapers in Ramallah and in the Gulf. His poetry collections include Luring the Mountain in Beirut (1999); Prescription of a Description in Jerusalem (1998) and Weightless Sky (1980). His novel, Describing the Past, was published in Jordan in 1995. Mr. Zaqatan has also written a number of scripts for various film documentaries. He is currently working on a poetry/prose anthology whose themeis "roads," comparing paths in life with the physical environment. His play The Narrow Sea was honored at the 1994 Cairo Festival. He is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.

 

Happening Now

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

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

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

  • “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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