Thursday, December 31, 2015

The items below were posted to the original IWP website as "happenings" in 2015.

Karlyn BOENS, alumna of Between the Lines, writes on Spike Lee's newest film, Chi-Raq, for the Aspen Institute Arts Program.

Sara BAUME (IWP '15) won the distinguished 2015 Lannan Literary Fellowship.

The Chicago Tribune highlights Karen VILLEDA's (IWP '15) recent residency in Ragdale.

Pulse covers the IWP's recent reading tour throughout Ukraine.

On a recent reading tour to Ukraine, Christopher MERRILL was interviewed in Litakcent, an online arts and culture magazine.

Between the Lines alumnus M.Darraj's nonfiction piece, "A Tree of Rights: My Childhood in Syria," is featured in Teen Ink Magazine.

Alejandro CEGARRA, an alumnus of the IWP's Narrative Witness project, is featured in The New York Times for his photo essay, "Fear and Loathing in Venezuela."

KIM Kyung-uk (IWP '13) discusses his time as a resident at the International Writing Program with the Literary Translation Institute of Korea.

Christopher MERRILL discusses online education during KCRG's Ethical Perspectives on the News.

O Thiam Chin's (IWP '10) first novel, The Infinite Sea, has won the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

Rachel ROSE (IWP '15) is featured in the current issue of Alaska Quarterly Review.

The literary blog All in French interviews Christopher MLALAZI (IWP '12).

MYAY HMONE LWIN's (IWP '15) A Knot is Where You Tie a Rope: Burmese Writing in Iowa is featured in the Bangkok Post.

Sara BAUME (IWP '15) has been shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award for Spill Simmer Falter Wither.

Rachel ROSE (IWP '15) interviews Karim ALRAWI (IWP '13) for Guernica.

Asma NADIA (IWP '13) has published her 50th novel, Love Sparks in Korea.

Fernando DEL PASO (IWP '69, '70) wins the 2015 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor.

Dubravka UGREŠIĆ (IWP ’83) is the 2015 recipient of the distinguished Neustadt International Prize for Literature, sometimes referred to as the “American Nobel.” On the longlist for the award were also CAN XUE (IWP '92) and Ghassan ZAQ'TAN (IWP '01).

In a recent Poetry Foundation podcast, Christopher MERRILL speaks with Harris KHALIQUE (IWP '15) about literary traditions in Pakistan, the cultural influences of different cities, and the important role of women in Pakistani literature.

Christopher MERRILL speaks with PEN America about Flash Fiction International, which was published earlier this year.

Sara BAUME (IWP '15) was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2015 in recognition of her achievement as a fiction writer.

Bernice CHAULY (IWP '14) is featured in the latest issue of Esquire Malaysia.

Motti LERNER's (IWP '00) Hard Love is opening at the Beckett Theatre in NYC on September 29.

Karim ALRAWI's (IWP '13) Book of Sands, winner of the inaugural HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction, has been reviewed by the Toronto Star.

S. DIWAKAR's (IWP '02) Hundreds of Streets to the Palace of Lights: Short Stories is now available.

"Literature: Better Than Politics at Fostering Cultural Understanding" via Iowa Public Radio.

Three IWP alumni are among the five recipients of the 2015 Mao Dun Prize, China's most prestigious literary award: Wang Meng (IWP '80), Su Tong (IWP '01) and Bi Feiyu (IWP '06).

Over at Guernica Amanda Lee KOE (IWP '13) assesses the foundations, and prospects of her native Singapore @50.

Two poems by Natasha TINIACOS (IWP '14), translated from the Spanish by Kelsi Vanada, appear in the most recent issue of Berfrois.

Yvonne Owour ADHIAMBO's (IWP '05) Dust has been shortlisted for the Financial Times/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards.

Jeremy TIANG (IWP '11) received a NEA grant for translation of fellow alum LO Yichin (IWP '07). Another NEA grant goes to UI colleague Aron AJI. Congratulations.

Oonya KEMPADOO (IWP '11) talks to the Caribbean Review of Books about rendering Caribbean speech in prose, writing Port of Spain as a literary character, and tackling the complexity of contemporary Caribbean life in fiction.

Oonya KEMPADOO (IWP '11) talks to the Caribbean Review of Books about rendering Caribbean speech in prose, writing Port of Spain as a literary character, and tackling the complexity of contemporary Caribbean life in fiction.

The Guardian on Etgar KERET's (IWP '01) new collection of essays, The Seven Good Years.

In a recent opinion piece for the New York Times, Etgar KERET (IWP '01) writes on the idea of justice in modern Israel.

Poems "Picnic" and "RSVP" by Natasha TINIACOS are now available in Berfrois.

Alisa GANIEVA on translation, perfunctory patriotism, and literary hoaxes via Asymptote.

Catherine FILLOUX was awarded the Planet Activist Award in honor of her long career as an activist artist in the theater community.

Alisa GANIEVA on translation, perfunctory patriotism, and literary hoaxes via Asymptote.

Stacy MATTINGLY writes on Asymptote's blog about IWP's latest exchange, Narrative Witness: A Caracas-Sarajevo Collaboration.

Yvonne Owour ADHIAMBO (IWP '05) provides a tour of her homeland and discusses what President Obama's visit means to the African nation on NPR's Morning Edition.

Iowa Now covers A Room of One's Own, where women in Bahrain and Jordan built a community of writers and explore artistic identity through online exchange.

Omar PÉREZ (IWP '14) speaks with PBS NewsHour about Cuba’s coming identity crisis.

The Library Foundation of Los Angeles recently hosted a trilingual reading and discussion of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" featuring Christopher MERRILL, Luis Alberto AMBROGGIO, Sholeh WOLPÉ, and Sahba MOTALLEBI.

Suchen Christine LIM's The River's Song has been awarded a Blue Star from Kirkus Reviews.

The Sound of the Sundial by Hana ANDRONIKOVA (IWP '07) is now available in English.

Paddy WOODWORTH (IWP '03) remembers his time as a Fall Resident in a new piece from The Irish Times.

The Asahi Shimbun remembers Japanese poet Hiroshi OSADA (IWP '71), who passed away on May 3, 2015.

Kyoko NAKAJIMA's (IWP '09) Katazuno has won the Kawai Hayao “Monogatari” Story Prize.

IWP alumni Mircea Cartarescu ('90), Maria Sonia Cristoff ('11), Helon Habila ('04) and H.M. Naqvi ('10) will be featured participants of this year's Internationales Literaturfestival, held in Berlin in September.

Luisa VALENZUELA (IWP '69) and Carlos GAMERRO (IWP '08) are heading the relaunched Argentinian Centre of PEN International.

The shortlist for the 2015 Chautauqua Prize includes Bilal TANWEER's (IWP '12) "The Scatter Here is Too Great."

The Playwright's Purpose, by Motti LERNER (IWP '00), is now available for purchase on Lulu.com.

Anja KAMPMANN (IWP '10) has won the Wolfgang Weyrauch Prize for poetry.

The archived video from the 2014 International Writing Program Showcase at the Library of Congress is now available online.

LIN Chun Yung's (IWP '12) Somebody is dreaming wins the 2015 Taipei International Book Exhibition Book Prize.

An excerpt from With the people from the bridge, by Dimitris LYACOS (IWP '12), is available on Trafika Europe.

Shihab SARKAR (IWP '91) has won the 2014 Bangla Academy Award for Poetry.

A piece in the most recent London Review of Books has much to say about "Maidan:Voices from the Uprising," a new play by Natalya VOROZHBIT (IWP '04).

Niyi OSUNDARE (IWP '88) is the 2014 recipient of the distinguished Nigerian National Merit Award.

The translator of the challenging poetry of Gozo YOSHIMASU (IWP '87, '04) has been awarded a 2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant.

Shandana Minhas' (IWP '13) Survival Tips for Lunatics is shortlisted for the Embassy of France's 2015 Fiction Prize at the upcoming Karachi Literary Festival.

Reading Tour alum Felix DE LA CONCHA was commissioned by the University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies.

Poet and Whitman translator Sholeh WOLPÉ gives a shoutout to the volume Seven New Generation African Poets, featuring among others  T J Dema (IWP '12).

Sholeh WOLPÉ writes on translating "Song of Myself" into Persian for the WhitmanWeb.

Sukrita KUMAR (IWP '02) writes in The Hindi about the Sufi poet Khusrau and the rich history of mutual influences between Muslim and Hindu cultures.

Adil JUSSAWALLA's (IWP '77) Trying to Say Goodbye is among eight books of poetry that won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2014.