Hatice AÇIKGÖZ (fiction writer, poet, editor; Germany) is the author of two books: the short story collection Ein oktopus hat drei herzen [An Octopus Has Three Hearts] and the poetry collection Fancy immigrantin: ein poetisches tagebuch [Fancy Immigrants]. They are the recipient of the Raus! Nur Raus! stipend of the city of Hamburg, and are currently working on their debut novel, which explores the rise of fascism in modern Germany. Their participation is made possible by the Max Kade Foundation.

Yassin ADNAN (poet, fiction writer, editor, television presenter; Morocco) is the author of six poetry collections, three short story collections, one novel, and one book about travel. The novel, Hot Maroc, was published in English by Syracuse University Press in 2021. Adnan serves as president of the Marrakech English Book Festival and as a member of the board of trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The founder of two literary magazines, he has also hosted two cultural television programs, one radio show, and one podcast. He is the editor of various titles, including the anthology Marrakech Noir (2018). His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Lisa ALLEN-AGOSTINI (fiction writer, poet, editor; Trinidad and Tobago) is the author of the historical noir novella Death in the Dry River (2024), the young adult novel Home Home (2020), and the domestic noir novel The Bread the Devil Knead (2021), which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022. She is currently working on a memoir in poetry and a novel set in the world of steelpan, which is the national instrument of her homeland. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Nada ALTURKI ندى التركي, (nonfiction writer, poet, journalist; Saudi Arabia) is a reporter for the English-language daily newspaper Arab News and has contributed to several regional and international publications, including Canvas Magazine, Voice of America, and The National. She is also a cofounder of Gen INK, a Riyadh-based writing collective dedicated to creating a meaningful space for Saudi writers to connect, and contributed a chapter to the textbook Women Community Leaders and Their Impact as Global Changemakers (2022). Alturki is currently writing a collection of poems inspired by her life in Saudi Arabia and time spent in the U.S. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Zakariya AMATAYA ซะการีย์ยา อมตยา (poet, editor, translator; Thailand) won the 2010 S.E.A. Write Award for his first poetry collection, No Women in Poetry. He followed with a second collection, หากภายในเราลึกราวมหาสมุทร [But in Us It Is Deep as the Sea], in 2013. After 25 years in Bangkok and India, Amataya returned home to Narathiwat in 2016 to write poems and stories about the southern Thai borderlands and to cofound a journal called The Melayu Review. His third poetry collection, due out in 2024, is called Posthumous Poems from Paradise. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Nathalie CHANG 張亦絢 (fiction writer, film critic; Taiwan) is author of the novels 愛的不久時：南特/巴黎回憶錄 [A Short Time in Love: Memoirs of Nantes / Paris] (2011); 永別書 [The Book of Farewells] (2015), which won the Rising Constellation of Twenty-first Century Award; and 性意思史 [Herstory of Sex] (2019), which won the Openbook Award and was the Mirror Weekly book of the year. She has won the Golden Tripod Award for Excellence in Columns and Commentary and is the author of the Column “Unexpected Taiwanese Films” in the National Film Center’s FA: Film Appreciation. Her participation was made possible by a grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. 

Anna DAVTYAN Աննա Դավթյան (poet, fiction writer, playwright, translator; Armenia) is the author of four books, two of which—Խաննա [Khanna] (2020) and Զորա [Zora] (2024)—have been bestselling novels in Armenia. She is the recipient of four fellowships from the Armenian Ministry of Education and Culture and two first-place prizes (one for fiction, one for a play) from the Yerevan Book Fest. She is currently working on a series of critical pieces titled Breakfasts. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Felipe FRANCO MUNHOZ (fiction writer, poet, playwright, translator; Brazil) is the author of Dissoluções [Dissolutions] (2024), Lanternas ao nirvana [Lanterns to Nirvana] (2022), Identidades [Identities] (2018), and Mentiras [Lies] (2016). He has translated works by Ivan Turgenev, Samuil Marshak, and Alexander Pushkin. He is the recipient of a Santa Maddalena Foundation fellowship and residencies with Art Omi, Sangam House, and the Festival Artes Vertentes. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Catarina GOMES (nonfiction and fiction writer; Portugal) is the author of four nonfiction books, most recently Um dedo borrado de tinta [A Finger Smudged with Ink] (2024). Her debut novel, Terrinhas [Little Lands] (2022), received the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Prize, and three of her books are included in the Portuguese government’s National Reading Plan. Gomes worked as a journalist at the daily newspaper Público for nineteen years, was a two-time finalist for the Gabriel García Marquez Journalism Prize, and was awarded the King of Spain Prize in 2016. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

HAN Junghyun (fiction writer; South Korea) is a novelist. Her debut short novel '아돌프와 알베르트의 언어' [The Language of Adolf and Albert] won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer’s Contest in 2015. In 2019, she won the Today's Writer Award for her novel '줄리아나도쿄' [Juliana Tokyo]. In 2020, she won the Young Writer's Award and the Queer Literature Award for her queer romance '우리의 소원은 과학소년' [Our Wish is a Science Boy]. In 2021, she won the Kim Yu Jeong Literature Award and the BUMA Democratic Uprising Literary Award for '쿄코와 쿄지' [Kyoko and Kyoji]. Her participation was made possible by a grant from Arts Council Korea (ARKO). 

Priya HEIN (fiction and nonfiction writer; Mauritius) debuted in 2023 with the novel Riambel, which won the Prix Athéna and was recognized as a notable African book for that year by the magazine Brittle Paper. The manuscript had previously won the Prix Jean Fanchette in 2021. Hein was nominated by the National Library of Mauritius for the 2017 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and was shortlisted for the Prix de l’Atelier Littéraire in 2021 and the Miles Morland Scholarship in 2023. In 2019, she was a mentee in the International Writing Program's Women’s Creative Mentorship Project. She is currently working on her second novel. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Putra HIDAYATULLAH (nonfiction and fiction writer, art curator, educator; Indonesia) is the author of a short story collection entitled Kebun Jagal [The Butcher’s Garden] (2023). His nonfiction writing has appeared in Artlink, Curatography, The Jakarta Post, and Check-In, while his fiction has been published in InterSastra, Porch Litmag, and Koran Tempo, among others. He served as a harvester for the international art exhibition documenta fifteen in Germany. He is currently writing a novel. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Saad Z. HOSSAIN (fiction writer; Bangladesh) is the author of five books, most recently the novella Kundo Wakes Up (2022) and the novel Cyber Mage (2021). The former was on the Locus recommended reading list for 2022, and Hossain has previously been a finalist for the Locus Awards, the IGNYTE awards, and the Grand Prix de l’imaginaire. He is currently working on a novel about djinns, martial artists, and refugees. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.  

Olena HUSEINOVA (poet, prose writer, radio host and producer; Ukraine) is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Нічний ефір [Night Air] (2024). Huseinova also writes short fiction and essays, some of which are featured in the anthology Ukraine 22: Ukrainian Writers Respond to War (2023). As the editor in chief at UA: Radio Culture, part of Ukraine's Public Broadcasting, she oversees radio theater and literary programming, leads a team producing radio documentaries on Ukrainian culture, and hosts of her own live radio programs. From February 26, 2022, until August 2023, Huseinova was a key voice in 24-hour news broadcasting on Ukrainian Radio. She has since expanded her activities to include documentary writing about the Russian-Ukrainian war, particularly focusing on the impact on civilians during the Russian occupation. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Sabyn JAVERI (fiction and nonfiction writer, translator; Pakistan, UK & UAE) is the author of the short story collection Hijabistan (2019) and the novel Nobody Killed Her (2017). She is the editor of volumes 1 and 2 of the multilingual Arzu Anthology of Student Writing (2018–2019) as well as the creative nonfiction anthology by Pakistani women writers entitled Ways of Being (2023). Her fiction has been published in The London Magazine, Litro, Wasafiri, Oxonian Review, and more, while her nonfiction has appeared in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, South Asian Review, and 3 Quarks Daily, among others. She currently teaches writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi. Her participation is made possible by a gift from the estate of William B. Quarton to the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. 

Karoline KAMEL (nonfiction and fiction writer, journalist, filmmaker; Egypt) is a Cairo-based journalist and the author of the novel Victoria (2022). She has published stories with a focus on the concerns of women and other social issues in several literary magazines, and is currently writing a second novel, Claiming Life, which tells the intersecting stories of three women born in different decades. Her first feature film, The Lottery, is presently in the editing process. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Nurit KASZTELAN (poet, fiction writer, editor, bookseller; Argentina) is the author of the novel Tanto (2023), which was the recipient of an honorable mention for the National Award for Literature from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes, and the poetry collections Movimientos Incorpóreos (2007), Lógica de los accidentes (2013), and Después (2018), which was published in English by Cardboard House Press as Awaiting Major Events (2021). She attended the Campo Garzon residency in Uruguay in 2022. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Tabish KHAIR (fiction and nonfiction writer, journalist, poet, academic; Denmark) was born and educated in the small town of Gaya in Bihar, India. An Indian citizen, he now resides in Denmark, where he teaches in the Department of English at the University of Aarhus. His most recent novels are Just Another Jihadi Jane (2016) and The Body by the Shore (2022). His first collection of short fiction is Namaste Trump & Other Stories (2023). Oxford University Press will publish his new nonfiction book, Literature Against Fundamentalism, in 2024. He participates courtesy of the Paul and Hualing Nieh Engle Fund. 

Daryl LI 李振宏 (nonfiction and fiction writer; Singapore) is the author of two collections of creative nonfiction—The Inventors (2023) and Tenderly, Tenderly (2024)—as well as a forthcoming short story collection, Minor Illusions. He was a finalist for the Georgia Review Prose Prize, and his work has been longlisted for both the Australian Book Review’s Calibre Essay Prize and the same publication’s Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. In 2013, he received a Golden Point Award for a short story in the English category. He is currently at work on a full-length nonfiction project as well as an essay collection. His participation is funded by the National Arts Council Singapore. 

Smith LIKONGWE (playwright, poet, fiction and nonfiction writer, academic; Malawi) is a lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Malawi. He also serves as the president of the Association Internationale du Théâtre pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse (ASSITEJ) Malawi. His publications include Kamuzu Banda and Other Pays (2019), Living Playscripts: A Trilogy (2018), and Prose, Poetry and Drama: A Malawian Anthology (2023). He is the editor and a contributor for the anthologies The Chief’s Blanket and Other Plays (2018), Southern African Plays Collection (2018), and Chamdothe ndi zisudzo zina [Chamdothe and Other Plays] (2018), among others. He has also written two children’s books in the Chichewa language and many plays that aired as part of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation’s various radio drama programs. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Phodiso MODIRWA (poet, nonfiction writer; Botswana) is the author of Speaking in Code, a chapbook published by Akashic Books as part of the Tisa: New-Generation African Poets box set. She performed at the inauguration ceremony of the current president of Botswana, and her work has received the Botswana President’s Award in Contemporary Poetry. Modirwa’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in adda, Guernica, Brittle Paper, Lolwe, Agbowó, 20.35 Africa, and other literary magazines. In 2022, she was a resident poet at the Gaborone Art Residency Centre. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

OKAMOTO Kei 岡本啓 (poet; Japan) is the author of three poetry books. His debut collection, Graffiti (2014), won two major early-career awards—the Nakahara Chūya Prize and the Mr. H Prize—and his second poetry collection, Zekkei Note (2017), won the prestigious Hagiwara Sakutarō Award. Okamoto also writes essays, designs his own books, and collaborates with artists in creating works for display in museums. He is currently writing a series of poetry reviews and critiques for the newspapers Tokyo Shimbun and Chunichi Shimbun. His participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Pervin SAKET (poet, novelist, editor; India) is the author of the novel Urmila (2016), the poetry collection A Tinge of Turmeric (2009), and a series of ten biographies in verse for children. She won the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize in 2021 and was awarded the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive Fellowship the same year. Her most recent poetry manuscript was a finalist for the Gaudy Boy Prize and the Wheelbarrow Books Prize 2024. She works as an editor for academic textbooks, serves as the poetry editor for The Bombay Literary Magazine, and is currently writing her second novel. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Elena SALAMANCA (poet, historian, fiction writer, art curator; El Salvador) is the author of several multidisciplinary books of poetry, fiction, and scholarly historical work. She has published three bilingual editions of her poetry translated into English: Tal vez monstruos [Monsters Maybe] (2022), Landsmoder (2022), and La familia o el olvido [Family or Oblivion] (2017). She is the creator, author, researcher, and co-coordinator of the collection SIEMPREVIVAS: Extraordinary Women in the History of El Salvador (2022). She is a three-time recipient of the National Poetry Prize in El Salvador, and her books have been published in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Though she currently lives in Mexico, she continues to work as an academic, artist, and activist in El Salvador. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Yuten SAWANISHI 澤西祐典 (fiction writer, scholar; Japan) is the author of Furamingo no mura [The Village of Flamingos] (2011), which received the Subaru Literary Prize; Moji no shōsoku [Letters of Letters] (2017); and Ame to karasu [Rain and Raven] (2018). His story “Filling Up with Sugar” appears in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, which was edited by Jay Rubin with a preface by Haruki Murakami. Sawanishi teaches at Ryukoku University and serves as a coordinator of the Kyoto Writers Residency. His participation was made possible by the University of Iowa's Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS) and the Stewart Memorial Fund. 

Chris TSE (poet, editor, nonfiction writer; New Zealand) is the author of the poetry collections How to Be Dead in a Year of Snakes (2014), HE’S SO MASC (2018), and Super Model Minority (2022), the latter of which was a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. He coedited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa (2021). In 2016, he received the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Tse is the current New Zealand Poet Laureate. His participation was made possible by a grant from Creative New Zealand.

Mélanie WERDER-AVILÉS (playwright, theatremaker, scholar; Spain) is the author of the plays *Buena suerte, chica; Sharenting; Nutella Days; and Tiradísimo de Precio [Dirt-cheap]; among others. Her play La Protagonista won the Lope de Vega award. She has been selected as a resident playwright at the Spanish National Drama Centre and has been a member of the International Summer Workshop at the Sala Beckett. She has been awarded the Carlota Soldevila Fellowship by the Teatre Lliure de Barcelona and is a member of the SGAE Playwriting Laboratory and the ETC of Contemporary Creation at the Sala Cuarta Pared in Madrid, among others. She is currently researching documentary theatre practices as a predoctoral fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid. Her participation was made possible by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC and supplemental monies from the IWP. 

Nicholas WONG (poet, translator, visual artist; Hong Kong) is the author of Crevasse (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Besiege Me (2021), which was a finalist for the same award. He was also the winner of Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize in 2018. His poems and translations have appeared in The Missouri Review, Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Griffith Review, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, Wasafiri, and World Literature Today, among others. Wong has also contributed writings to projects organized by the Manchester International Festival and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He currently teaches at the Education University of Hong Kong. His participation was made possible by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.

Lyuba YAKIMCHUK (poet, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist; Ukraine) is the author of the poetry books Абрикоси Донбасу [Apricots of Donbas] (2015) and Як мода [Like Fashion] (2009), as well as the plays Wall and Schrödinger's Cat. She also wrote the screenplays for both the film Slovo House. Unfinished Novel (2021) and the documentary Slovo House (2017). Yakimchuk was a songwriter and spoken word artist on the album Ukrainian Songs of Love and Hate (2022) and coauthor with Mary Branley of the libretto for the musical Freedom Letters. Her writing has been translated into more than twenty languages, and she read her poetry as part of John Legend’s performance during the 2022 Grammys. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN. Her participation is made possible by an anonymous gift to the IWP.

YU Yoyo (poet, fiction writer; PRC) is the author of the poetry collections [Seven Years] (2012), [Me as Bait] (2016), [Wind Can’t] (2019), [Against Body] (2019), and [A Cat Is a Cloud] (2021). The Poetry Translation Centre published her first English poetry collection, My Tenantless Body, in 2019, with translations by Dave Haysom and A. K. Blakemore. Yu’s debut novel, Invisible Kitties, will be published in English by HarperCollins in October 2024. She was a fellow of the Vermont Studio Center in 2017. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Swedish. Her participation is made possible by a gift from the Ramon and Victoria Lim Fund. 

Péter ZÁVADA (poet, playwright, translator, teacher; Hungary) is the author of the poetry collection Wreck in Lee (2017), for which he won the Horváth Péter Literary Scholarship, in addition to four other books of poetry. He is also a recipient of the Öarkény István Playwriting Scholarship (2016), the Móricz Zsigmond Literary Scholarship (2017), and the Cogito Prize for Young Philosophers (2023). Several of his plays have been produced to acclaim in Budapest, Nyitra, and Dresden, and The Kertész Street Shaxpeare Carwash won the Critic’s Choice Award for the best Hungarian theatre production of the year in 2021. At an early age, Závada was part of the highly successful rap group Akkezdet Phiai. He currently holds a full-time position as a senior lecturer in the Eötvös Loránd University Department of Aesthetics. His participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

ZHANG Chu 张楚 (novelist; PRC) is the author of six short story collections, most recently 七根孔雀羽毛 [Seven Peacock Feathers] (2023), 过香河 [Passing Xianghe] (2021), and 夜是怎样黑下来的 [How the Night Fall] (2019). He published his first novel, 云落 [Yun Luo] in June of 2024. Among the awards he has won are the Lu Xun Literature Award. Yu Dafu Fiction Award, Sun Li Literature Award, Lin Jinlan Short Story Award, Gao Xiaosheng Literature Award, and the Chinese Young Writers Award. Three of his books have been adapted for the screen. His participation is made possible by a gift from the Ramon and Victoria Lim Fund.