Dan TSALKA
1996
children's author, critic, editor
works with an outstanding publisher for children's books, Jacaranda Designs, the only publishing house in Kenya which actively recruits Kenyan writers and illustrators to produce high-quality juvenile literature by and about Kenya and its traditions. She is also currently editor of The Young Nation. She was recently chosen by the Forum for African Women Educationalists to write six textbooks highlighting African woman scientists for the upper elementary level. Ms. Mwangi holds the M.A. in literature from the University of Nairobi and belongs to the African Council for Communication Education, the Kenya Oral Literature Association, and the organization for Youth, Information, Education and Communication. In addition to her native Kikuyu she speaks Kiswahili. She is attending the IWP through the a grant from the US Information Agency.
1997
editor, fiction writer, playwright
(born in Concepción, 1962) is literary editor of the supplement Zona de Contacto for Santiago's leading newspaper, El Mercurio. One of the literary leaders of his generation, Mr. Gomez is the author of two short story collections, Adi-s, Carlos Marx, nos vemos en el Cielo ('Goodbye, Karl Marx, We'll See You in Heaven'; 1992), Partes del cuerpo que no se tocan ('Don't Touch These Body Parts'; 1997); a novel, Vidas Ejemplares ('Exemplary Lives'; 1994); and he edited, with 1994 Chilean IWP participant Alberto Fuguet, two anthologies, Cuentos con Walkman (1993) and McOndo (1996). His play Extra-as Costumbres Orales was staged by Teatro La Feria in 1996, and won the Premio Concurso Nacional de Dramaturga; he adapted and directed Palomita Blanca for Teatro Arena in 1997. Vidas Ejemplares was a finalist for the prestigious Romulo Gallegos Prize, and Adios Carlos Marx... received recognition from the Municipality of Santiago. At the University of Iowa, he plans to complete a second novel, as well as work on television adaptations of stories by young Chilean authors. He is here through a grant from the Fundaci-n Andes.
1998
editor, fiction writer
(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.
2002
editor, poet
is the Project Coordinator of Culture and Science at the Qattan Foundation, and an editor at the Palestinian House of Poetry in Ramallah. Published in many magazines and journals, he is the author of Waj Al Zujaj (The Pain of Glass, 2001) and a contributor to Dueof An-Naar Ad-Da’Emoun, a joint publication of poetry for 13 young Palestinian poets. He is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
2002
critic, editor, poet
is a poet, critic, and editor of the monthly Literatura na _wiecie. He has translated the works of John Ashbery, John Berryman, Seamus Heaney, and numerous other American and Anglo-Irish poets, while many of his own poems, translations, and critical works have appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Times Literary Supplement. A collection, Things to Translate and Other Poems (1991), is available in English. His most recent book is Piosenka pasterska (1999). He is participating courtesy of the Jurzykowski Foundation.
2003 Resident
editor, journalist, poet
(b. 1966, Marijampole) won the Z. Gele Prize for best first book of poems with Tatuiruote (Tattoo, 1993). Another collection of his, Kauline dudele (Bone Pipe, 1999), won both the Spring of Poetry and Simonaityte Awards. His works have been translated into English, German, Polish among other languages. In addition to writing poetry, Mr. Grajauskas works as a journalist and editor of Klaipeda, a daily newspaper very popular in Klaipeda city and the western part of Lithuania. He is responsible for the selection of literary works and promotion of young Lithuanian writers featured in Klaipeda's monthly literary supplement "Gintaro Lasai" (Drops of Amber). Since 2000, he has organized the annual poetry festival Placdarmas (Bridgehead) in Klaipeda. Having studied jazz at the State Conservatoire in Klaipeda, he also sings and plays the bass guitar in the band Rokfeleriai. He is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
2003 Resident
editor, poet, translator
(b. 1954, Buzau) (family name Prelipceanu) has coordinated a series of world literature, "Biblioteca Polirom," at Polirom Publishing House since 2001, but has been an editor for more than twenty years. After her debut in the literary journal Romania literara in 1975, Izgonirea din Paradise (Banishment from Paradise, 1979), her first book of poetry, won the Debut Prize of the Writers' Union. Since then she has published four more volumes of poetry which enjoy a wide readership both in Romania and abroad and have garnered numerous accolades. A distinguished translator, she has published selections of Alan Brownjohn's and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's poetry and edited the bilingual Romanian/Polish anthology, Strong-28 Women Poets of Romania (1999). She is currently working on an anthology of Romanian women's poetry composed between 1960-2003. Ms. Comanescu was a founding member of the Civic Alliance (an association of Romanian intellectuals set up in 1990 whose ongoing purpose has been to strengthen the civil society) and has been the Secretary of the Romanian PEN Center for thirteen years. She is participating courtesy of the U.S. State Department.
2004 Resident
editor, fiction writer
is a prize-winning short-story writer, whose work has also appeared in German, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish, Slovenian and English. His second book, Hunters & Gatherers (2001), was the prose bestseller of the year in Slovakia, garnering considerable media attention; it was published in a Czech translation in 2003 by Odeon, followed by a German edition. His third book, the novel, The Final Hit, appeared last year. He is participating courtesy of the Department of State.
2004 Resident
editor, journalist, poet
is a prominent figure in Russian-language literature of Central Asia. His work embraces modern and traditional Uzbeki themes and poetry genres; he seeks to express them in traditional as well as in contemporary, often Western, forms. From 1991 to 1996 he was the editor of The Star of the East , an influential, post-independence literary journal in Tashkent. He has published ten books of poetry and fiction, as well as essays on issues of democracy and national problems in Central Asia. An orchestrated campaign led to his ouster from The Star of the East, and to a publishing blacklist. Subsequently he worked on a World Bank Project, aimed at publicizing the Aral Sea ecological disaster; more recently, however, his dissenting views have made it impossible to find work. His last two books are Rubai quatrains, aimed to give new life to a medieval poetic genre. After a nine-month wait for a visa, he will spend a year at the University of Iowa, serving as the International Program's first Public Intellectual. He is participating courtesy of the Institute for International Education.
2005 Resident
editor, fiction writer, journalist
debuted in 2000 with The Days of Shaytaan, a novel depicting the void between emigrant parents and their westernized children, and has since written many short stories, including "Little Hamid," which won the El Hizjra Literary Prize. His most recent work, "Nobody has a Program for the Concert of Life," appeared in a collection of short stories from leading Dutch writers. He is writing a commissioned script for a film about derailed youth. He is participating courtesy of the US Department of State.
2005 Resident
editor, journalist, poet, translator
contributes to many of Libya’s publications, including Albait (which she directs) and the magazines Almouatamer, Almajal, and Four Seasons. She oversees the Kol El Fenoun newspaper and writes a weekly column on English-language authors for the daily Al Jamahiriya. Ms. Neihoum has put together a collection of poems by young Libyans, Teseneon ('Poets from the 1990s'), and a collecction of global short stories, Ofoq min lazaward ('Azure horizons'). She is participating courtesy of the US Department of State.
2005 Resident
editor, fiction writer
is the IWP’s first writer from Kazakhstan. She studied Russian philology at Almaty State University and English philology at the Kazakh State University of Foreign Languages. She is an editor at Cosmo Kazakhstan magazine, and contributes short stories to Apolinary magazine. She participates courtesy of the US Department of State.
2005 Resident
editor, non-fiction writer, poet
lectures on literature and poetry at the Kerem Institute in Jerusalem. A co-founder of a writing program for gifted youth at the Matan Arts and Culture Project, she has taught in the Creative Writing Program of Ben-Gurion University, and in 2006 will be a visiting poet at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Stranger and Everyday Woman and The Mountain Mother is Gone are her first two collections; a third volume of poetry, Subjects of the Sun, is forthcoming. She has represented Israel at poetry festivals in Macedonia and Rotterdam. In 2003 Ms. Hass’ contributions to Israeli life and letters were honored with the Prime Minister of Israel Award for Writers. She participates courtesy of the US-Israeli Educational Foundation.
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