2023 Fall Residents

Our Fall 2023 writers-in-residence are in Iowa City August 19 through November 4. To be in the loop, please sign up for our email list here, and follow us on IWP's Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @UIIWP for more about our incoming residents and virtual IWP events!
ALSHAALI_cropped

Ali ALSHAALI علي الشعالي  (poet, editor, publisher; United Arab Emirates), an engineer by training, is the author of five poetry collections, a collection of essays, and  the novel [The Live Living], which won the Al-Owais Creative Award and a nomination for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. With long experience in literary management, he currently heads up the Al Hudhud Publishing Group. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai

ANASTASIADOU_headshot_cropped

Nektaria ANASTASIADOU Νεκταρία Αναστασιάδου (fiction writer; Turkey/Greece) is the author of the English-language novel A Recipe for Daphne, shortlisted for the 2022 Runciman Award and long-listed for the 2022 Dublin Literary Award, and Στα Πόδια της Αιώνιας Άνοιξης [Beneath the Feet of Eternal Spring] (2023), written in Istanbul Greek; her work has appeared in The Markaz Review, and elsewhere. She participates thanks to a gift from the estate of William B. Quarton.

Kevin CHEN_cropped

Kevin CHEN 陳思宏  (novelist; Taiwan) started his career as a stage and screen actor. He is also the author of ten novels and short story collections, which have garnered him several literary awards in Taiwan. Ghost Town, in Darryl Sterk’s translation, among Library Journal’s Best Books of World Literature 2022, was longlisted for PEN’s 2023 Translation Prize and will be translated into 11 languages. Chen lives in Berlin, where he long was foreign correspondent for Taiwanese tv. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Noelle Q. DE JESUS (fiction, editor, translator; Singapore) is the author of the collections Cursed and Other Stories (2019) and Blood Collected Stories (2015), which won a 2016 Next Gen Indie Book Award and was translated into French, as well as of other fiction. She has edited anthologies of flash- and micro-fiction, translated from the Tagalog, and participated in literary festivals in the Philippines, Singapore, and the U.S. Her work has appeared in Witness, Puerto del Sol, Fiction Attic Press and The Art and Craft of Asian Stories, among other places. Her participation is funded by the National Arts Council Singapore.

De Jong_cropped

Raoul DE JONG (novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist; the Netherlands) has published five collections of travel stories and four non-fiction novels. Among the latter, Jaguarman (2020) was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature and nominated for several Dutch and Belgian literary prizes; the 2023 long-form essay Boto Banja [The Boat Dance] won de Toneelschrijfprijs for best theater writing, and in 2022 the city of Rotterdam awarded De Jong’s overall work the de Anna Blaman Prize. He is completing his first screenplay and participates in the residency thanks to a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Domoslawski_headshot_cropped

Artur DOMOSŁAWSKI  (non-fiction, journalist; Poland) has among his titles Gorączka latynoamerykańska  [Latin American Fever], Śmierć w Amazonii [Death in the Amazonas], the essay collection Wykluczeni [The Outcasts] and two biographies: Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life, for which he was voted “Journalist of the Year” for 2010, and Wygnaniec. 21 scen z życia Zygmunta Baumana [The Exile. 21 Scenes from the Life of Zygmunt Bauman], the winner of the 2022 “Juliusz” prize for best biography. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, El País, Letras Libres, Etiqueta Negra, Words Without Borders, The Baffler, and elsewhere; his work has been frequently awarded, and widely translated. His participation is courtesy of the Paul Engle Fund.

EZ-ELDIN headshot_cropped

Mansoura EZ-ELDIN منصورة عز الدين (fiction; nonfiction, editor; Egypt), nominated by Beirut39 among the 39 Best Arab-language Writers Under 40, is an award-winning and widely translated author of 10 books. -خطوات في شنغهاي [Walks in Shanghai: on the Meaning of Distance Between Egypt and China] won the 2021 Ibn Battuta Prize for travel literature; in 2014, the Sharjah International Book Fair nominated her  جبل الزمرد  [Emerald Mountain] as Best Arabic Novel. Her writing has appeared, among other places, in The New York Times, A Public Space, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Granta. She is the managing editor of the cultural weekly Akhbar Al-Adab and, since 2003, its book review editor. A grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State funds her participation.

Gidali_headshot_cropped

Orit GIDALI (poet, children’s book author, editor; Israel) is the author, most recently, of the poetry volume  התאומים [The Towers ] (2021); Twenty Girls to Envy Me, a Hebrew-English edition of her collected poems, was longlisted for the 2017 PEN America Literary Award. Her poetry has been widely translated. She also writes children’s books, receiving in 2022 the Dvora Omer Award for [Kind of a Unicorn], and has for two decades co-directed the ‘Sadnaot Habait’ creative writing school. Fulbright Israel sponsors her participation in the residency.

Photo credit:
Shlomi Yosef
Graham_headshot_cropped

Yashika GRAHAM (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, visual artist; Jamaica), the winner of the 2019 Mervyn Morris Prize for Poetry, has also received a Centrum Writer’s Residency and read at literary festivals including Dodge Poetry (USA), Bristol (UK), the World Festival of Poetry (Venezuela) and Port Townsend (USA). Her poetry, prose, and literary criticism have been published internationally; her debut collection Some of Us Can Go Back Home is forthcoming from Blouse & Skirt Books. She participates courtesy a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Maricela Guerrero_cropped

Maricela GUERRERO (poet, writer, teacher; Mexico) is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently  A río revuelto (2022) and El sueño de toda célula (2018), which won her the 2018 Clemencia Isaura Prize; in Robin Myers’ translation, it was published by Cardboard House Press as The Dream of Every Cell  (2022). A fellow of Mexico’s distinguished National System of Art Creators, she publishes widely, often in translation; her creative writing pedagogy centers on eco-poetics and eco-feminism. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.

Hamzah_cropped

Saba HAMZAH سبأ حمزة (poet, scholar; Yemen/ The Netherlands) is the author of the poetry collections تراتيل عذراء [Virgin Hymns] (2012) and حصتنا من السماء [Our Shared Sky] (2021). She has contributed to and collaborated with many academic, artistic, and media platforms and publications, and is the founder of the Yemeni Women’s Archive, a digital space for knowledges emerging from women’s experiences. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

HO_headshot_cropped

Tammy Lai-Ming HO  何麗明  (poet, scholar, editor, translator; Hong Kong) is the author of a story collection, an academic monograph on neo-Victorian cannibalism and two volumes of poetry; a third volume will appear in 2024. The editor-in-chief of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, the English-language editor at Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, and founding co-editor of Hong Kong Studies, she publishes and lectures widely on Hong Kong literature and culture, and translates contemporary Hong Kong and Chinese poetry. Her own poems have been translated widely. Her participation was made possible by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.

Johnscott_headshot_cropped

Enah JOHNSCOTT (filmmaker, TV director, screenplay writer; Cameroon) has written and directed The Fisherman's Diary, and directed the feature-length Half Heaven. His work has garnered him a first place in the screenplay category at the 2020 Africa Movie Academy Awards, and prizes at film festivals in Africa, UK, and Russia. His current screenwriting project centers on a boy with autism. He participates thanks to a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

KIVA_headshot_cropped

Iya KIVA  Ія Ківа  (poet, translator, journalist; Ukraine) is the author of poetry volumes Подальше от рая [Farther from Heaven] (2018) and Перша сторінка зими [The First Page of Winter] (2019), as well as of a 2021 book of interviews with Belarusian writers. Her poems have been translated into more than 30 languages and awarded nationally and internationally. She translates Polish and Belarusian poetry and contributes to the PJ Library program in Ukraine as an editor and a translator of children’s books from the English. Her participation is made possible by an anonymous gift to IWP.

Ladakhi_headshot_cropped

Guru Tshering LADAKHI (poet; India) is the author of the poetry volume Monk on a Hill (2017). His poems have been published in national and international journals like Chandrabhaga, Sangam, Lyric and La.Lit, to name a few; his work appears in Contemporary English Poetry by Indians, Best Asian Poetry and other anthologies. For the past two decades, he has convened a group of creative writers in his hometown of Gangtok, Sikkim. His participation is supported by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

LI_cropped

LI Kotomi 李琴峰 (novelist, essayist, translator; Taiwan/ Japan) is the author of Hitorimai, published in 2022 as Solo Dance, Porarisu ga furisosogu yoru [Night of the Shining North Star] (2020), and Higanbana ga saku shima [The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom] (2021). She is the winner of the Akutagawa Prize and the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists, both awarded in Japan, where she is currently based. She writes in Japanese, self-translating her work into Mandarin. Her participation was made possible by a grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.  

Macheso_headshot_cropped

Wesley MACHESO (fiction; poetry; editor; Malawi) won the Peer Gynt Literary Award for his children’s book Akuzike and the Gods (2017). Twice shortlisted for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship and longlisted for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize, he is the author of the collection A Masquerade of Spirits (2020); his poems are included in the 2020 anthology Wreaths for a Wayfarer and widely in journals on-line. He is an associate professor at the University of Malawi. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Department of State, courtesy the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Mahlangu_ headshot_cropped

Busisiwe MAHLANGU (poet, playwright, fiction writer; South Africa) is the author of Surviving Loss, a 2018 poetry collection also adapted for theater. She was awarded the inaugural South Africa National Poetry Prize, has had work longlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award, and is published in Kalahari, Atlanta Review, 20.35 Africa, Best ‘New’ African Poets, and elsewhere. In 2022, she was a fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

MARIC_cropped

Senka MARIĆ  (poet, novelist,  essayist, editor; Bosnia-Herzegovina) is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Do smrti naredne [ Until the next death] (2016) and the novels Kintsugi tijela (2018) and Gravitacije (2021), translated into English as Body Kintsugi and Gravities, and to several other languages. The former received the 2018 Meša Selimović Award for best novel in BiH, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro, the English PEN Translates Award 2022, and was shortlisted for the 2023 EBRD Literature Prize; Gravitacije won the 2022 Štefica Cvek Award for feminist writing. Marić often participates in European literary events, teaches writing workshops, and is the editor-in-chief of the online literary magazine Strane.ba. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.

Moon_Cropped

MOON Bo Young  문보영 (poet, novelist, essayist; South Korea) made her debut in 2016, winning the Joongang New Literary Award and the Kim Soo Young Prize for her first poetry collection, translated into English in 2021 as Pillar of Books. She has since published two more volumes of poetry and several volumes of fiction and essays; beyond print, she distributes her writing through other media—snail mail, radio, phone, and more. Currently, she is teaching at the Seoul Arts University. Her participation was made possible by a grant from Arts Council Korea (ARKO). 

Nathaniel_cropped

Soonest NATHANIEL (poet, spoken-word artist; Nigeria) is the author of the mixed-genre volume Burying the Ghosts of Dead Narratives (2022) and the poetry collection Teaching Father How to Impregnate Women (2018). The winner of the 2017 RL Poetry Award and many Nigerian poetry and spoken-word competitions, he was named a Langston Hughes Fellow at the Palm Beach Festival and served as the Poet Laureate for the Korea Nigeria Poetry Festival; his poems appear in Nigerian, US and British magazines. He participates thanks to a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State. 

Navarro_headshot_cropped

Brenda NAVARRO  (fiction writer, editor; Spain/Mexico) is the author of the novels Casas Vacías, published in English as Empty Houses (2021), which won Spain’s Tigre Juan Award in 2020, and Ceniza en la boca [Mouth Full of Ash], the recipient of the 2022 Best Book of Fiction awarded by Spanish booksellers and placing on the 2023 Premio Vargas Llosa shortlist. Currently, she is at work on fiction “about language and borders within the US-Mexico space of war.”  Her participation is courtesy of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC and a gift from the estate of W.B. Quarton. 

Noonari_headshot_cropped

Azhar NOONARI  اظهر نوناري  (fiction writer, translator; Pakistan) made his debut in 2016 with the novel [Black Bird in a White Cage] in 2016; in 2019, his story “اجنبي” [The Stranger] won the Naseem Kharl Short Story Prize. His many translations between English and Sindhi, of both fiction and non-fiction,  have been published in Sindh's leading literary publications; in 2023, a novel will be published that retells Homer's Iliad with elements from Indian and Arab history and mythology. He teaches at the Islamia College of  Arts and Commerce. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Oloixarac_headshot

Pola OLOIXARAC (Resident 2010; Visitor 2023)  is the author of the novels Las teorías salvajes (2008), Las constelaciones oscuras (2015) and Mona (2019), all available in English (Soho Press, FSG), and of the collection of political essay Galería de celebridades argentinas (2023). She has written the opera libretto “Hercules in Mato Grosso,” premiered in Buenos Aires (2014) and New York City (2015), contributed articles on politics and culture for The New York Times, the BBC and elsewhere, and is currently a columnist at La Nación. A co-founder and editor of The Buenos Aires Review, which features contemporary literature in the Americas, she was in 2010 named among Granta’s “Best Young Spanish Novelists.” A recipient of the national award for literature from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes, as well as, in 2019, of the British Library’s Eccles and Hay Festival prizes, she had Savage Theories nominated for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award; her work has been translated into 10 languages.. In 2023, she was an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa.

Photo credit:
D. Govanelli
Pekkanen_headshot_cropped

Reetta PEKKANEN (poet; Finland) has published the collections Pieniä kovia nuppuja [Small Hard Buds] (2014), Kärhi [Tendril] (2019), Salakuljetuksia [Smugglings] (2021) and Katkaistut tulppaanit [Cut Tulips] (2023). Her poetry focuses on themes of personal and environmental loss, non-human perspectives, and natural semiotics. Among her awards are the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, the Katri Vala Prize and the Silja Hiidenheimo Memorial Stipend; she is a member of the poetry publishing cooperative Poesia. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. 

Marina PORCELLI (fiction writer, essayist; Argentina) is the author of the novella Cuaderno de invierno  [ A Winter Notebook] (2021), a collection of essays on gender Nausica. Viaje al otro lado de la otredad  [Nausicaa. Journey to the Other Side of Otherness] (2021), the story collections La cacería [The Hunt] (2016) and De la noche rota  [Of the Broken Night] (2009/2021), and others. Her work has garnered her the 2014 Edmundo Valadés Ibero-American Award and the 2021 Eduardo Mallea National Essay Award; she has attended residences in Mexico, Canada, and China. A frequent contributor to Latin American newspapers, she writes the column “Nocaut Lírico” [The Lyrical Knockout] about gender and boxing for Playboy Mexico.  Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Mary ROKONADRAVU (fiction, nonfiction, prose poetry; Fiji) creates stories, poetry, and literary nonfiction inspired by art, history, and science. Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Pacific region) in 2017, she won it in 2015 and in 2022. Her work has been published in Granta, adda, and Synkretic, and anthologized by the University of London Press and Penguin Random House; she is now working on a novel. Her participation is supported by the U.S. State Department through its Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Ruiz_cropped

Martha Cecilia RUIZ (nonfiction; fiction; editor; arts promotor; Nicaragua) has for the past three decades worked as a reporter, scriptwriter, and a host of radio and tv programs. The organization she founded, “Proyecto365MCR,” promotes Nicaraguan women’s creative writing. The author of Familia de cuchillos [Family of knives] (2016), she has also contributed fiction and non-fiction to a dozen national and regional anthologies. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

SHI YIFENG_PRC_cropped

SHI Yifeng 石一枫  (novelist, editor; People's Republic of China) has authored the novels [Fruit under the Red Flag], [In Love with Beijing], and [An Unofficial History of the Heart] as well as the story collections [Chen Jinfang Is Gone] and [Itching for a Fight]. Among his many awards are the Hunan New Talent Award, the Hundred Flowers Award, the People’s Literature New Author Award, and the Yu Dafu Novella Award. He is also an editor at Dangdai magazine. His participation was made possible by the Paul and Hualing Engle Foundation.

Sofronieva-Headshot_Cropped

Tzveta SOFRONIEVA  Цвета Софрониева (poet, fiction writer, playwright, essayist; Germany/Bulgaria), a physicist and historian of science by training, is the author of over 20 books, including Multiverse (2020), a collection of new and selected poems written originally in German, Bulgarian and English and A Hand Full of Water (2012), translated from the German, the recipient of a 2009 PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant and the 2012 Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation. Her poetry has been translated into 19 languages; her theater work has been supported by Bulgaria’s National Cultural Fund. She participates courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation. 

Photo credit:
Photo Heike Steinweg
Suo Er headshot cropped

SUO ER 索耳 (fiction; editor; PRC) is the author of the novel 伐木之夜 [The Night of the Felling] and the story collection  非亲非故  [Noncorrelation]. His works have appeared in China’s top literary magazines and received many awards, the 43rd Hong Kong Youth Literary Award and a 2021 nomination as Most Promising Newcomer of the Year by the Southern Literature Festival among them. He has also engaged in publishing, media, and exhibition work. His writing concerns itself with the dispersion of cultures, and with lives of individuals in a “Southern framework.” He participates thanks to a grant from the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou. 

Tazhi_cropped

Aigerim TAZHI Айгерим Тажи (poet; Kazakhstan) is the author of the volumes of poetry БОГ-О-СЛОВ [THEO-LOG-IAN] and Paper-Thin Skin/Бумажная кожа (2019), published  in a bilingual edition by Zephyr Press with support by an NEA Translation Fellowship, and appeared among Year’s Most Notable Translations by World Literature Today. Her poems have been widely published in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., translated into many languages, and received international literary prizes. She is the author of projects at the crossroads of poetry and other forms of art. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

WANG_headshot_cropped

WANG Zhanhei 王占黑 (fiction writer; PRC) is the author of three  story collections:  [Air Cannon] (2018), which won the inaugural Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize,  [Neighborhood Adventurers] (2018), and  [Prima Donna] (2020). Her award-winning works focus on the lives of China's urban working class; some of her stories have been adapted into films and plays. She participates courtesy of the Paul and Hualing Nieh Engle Fund. 

Wong_Yi_headshot_cropped

WONG Eva Yi   黃怡 [fiction writer, essayist, librettist, editor; Hong Kong] is the author of short stories collections 擠迫之城的戀愛方法  [Ways To Love In A Crowded City],  林葉的四季  [The Four Seasons of Lam Yip],  補丁之家  [Patched Up], and  據報有人寫小說 [News Stories], as well as the libretti for Cantonese-language chamber opera [Women Like Us] 兩個女子, and multimedia concert  幸福家庭與狗 [The Happy Family]. She won the 2018 Hong Kong Arts Development Award for Young Artist (Literary Arts) and was in 2020 among the “20 most anticipated young Sinophone novelists” in the Taiwanese magazine Unitas. She is working on stories exploring Hong Kong’s historical monuments, and on texts for performance with music and other art forms. Her participation was made possible by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.

Yotsumoto_headshot_cropped

Yasuhiro YOTSUMOTO 四元康祐(poet, translator, essayist, editor; Japan) is the author of more than 15 poetry collections, including Starboard of My Wife (translated into English by Takako Lento) and several volumes of poetry translations and anthologies, including Dante Meeting Li Po. His poetry has garnered him an Ayukawa Nobuo and a Hagiwara Sakutaro award, among others. After 30+ years in the U.S. and Germany, Yasuhiro recently moved his home base to Tokyo, where he teaches poetry, organizes poetry events, and contributes poetry criticism. His participation is courtesy the Bureau of Cultural and educational Affairs at the U.S. 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.

Find Us Online