Enza GARCÍA ARREAZA (fiction writer, poet; Venezuela) is an essayist for the cultural platform Backroom Caracas and for the magazine Climax. In 2016, she was selected by the Guadalajara International Book Fair for “Ochenteros,” a program for Latin American writers born in the 1980s. Her short story collection El bosque de los abedules [The Forest of Birches] won the 2010 National University Literature Prize of Simon Bolívar University; the story volume Cállate poco a poco [Be Quiet Slowly] won the 2007 Contest for Unpublished Authors. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
critic, fiction writer, poet, translator
Vladimir MARTINOVSKI Владимир Мартиновски (fiction writer, poet, critic, translator; Macedonia) teaches comparative poetics at Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, and is the secretary of the Macedonian PEN Center. The author of ten poetry collections and many volumes of literary criticism and theory, he has received awards for poetry (at the International Struga Poetry Evenings) and for literary criticism. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker
Dilman DILA (fiction writer, filmmaker; Uganda) is the author of three volumes, The Flying Man of Stone, A Killing in the Sun and Cranes Crest at Sunset, shortlisted for the 2016 Gerald Kraak Award and the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His The Felistas Fable was the Film of the Year at the 2014 Uganda Film Festival; What Happened in Room 13 has had six million views on YouTube; he regularly produces science fiction films for his YouTube channel. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, poet, translator
Ubah Cristina ALI FARAH (fiction writer, poet, playwright, translator; Italy) is a Somali-Italian novelist, performer, teacher and social activist. Her two novels, Madre piccola [Little Mother, Indiana UP 2011] and Il Comandante del fiume [The Commander of the River] tell stories of the Somali civil war and its refugees in Italy. In 2006, she was awarded the Lingua Madre National Literary Prize, and in 2008, the Vittorini Prize. She has a PhD in African Studies from the University of Naples; currently she lives in Brussels. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker, playwright, screenwriter
Santiago GIRALT (playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, fiction writer; Argentina) writes plays, screenplays, and novels, and directs films. In 2017, he was awarded the National Arts Fund Bi-Centennial Grant in Literature. His first novel, [Nelly R, the General’s Lover], was shortlisted for the 2008 Planeta International Prize; La mala memoria came out in 2015; Disparo is forthcoming. He has written and directed over a dozen films, and participated in many international film festivals. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2005 Resident, 2017 Visitor
fiction writer
Yvonne Adhiambo OWUOR (fiction writer; Kenya) is an author, lecturer, and arts curator. Her first novel, Dust, was published by Knopf in 2014, and received the 2015 TBC Jomo Kenyatta Literature Award. In 2003, she won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her story “Weight of Whispers,” also the title of a 2003 volume. Owuor was an IWP Fall Resident in 2005, and returns in 2017 as the Residency’s first Grinnell Fellow. She participates courtesy of Grinnell College.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, translator
Yamila BÊGNÉ (fiction writer; Argentina), a teacher of creative writing, is the author of three experimental story anthologies, most recently Los Límites del control [Limits of Control] (2017) and a non-fiction writer. A recipient of a 2006 Letters and Illustration award from the Ministry of Culture in Buenos Aires, in 2017 she attended a CUNY residency on a Néstor Sánchez Grant. She participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Aram PACHYAN Արամ Պաչյան (fiction writer, essayist; Armenia) is the author of story collections Ռոբինզոն [Robinson] (2011) and Օվկիանոս [Ocean] (2014). His novel Ցտեսություն, Ծիտ [Goodbye, Bird] (2012) has been translated into English, with French, Bulgarian, Arabic, and Georgian editions forthcoming, and was staged at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art; his fiction has been set to music. In 2010, Pachyan received the Presidential Prize for his short stories. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State
2018 Resident
fiction writer
TAKIGUCHI Yūshō 滝口悠生 (fiction writer, Japan) writes stories about individual and collective memory, marked by a roaming, omniscient narrative voice and multiple temporalities. His novella Resonance (Gakki) won the 2011 Shincho Prize for New Writers; in 2015, his novella The Jimi Hendrix Experience was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize; in 2016 Takiguchi won that award for The Unceasing (Shinde inai mono). His participation is made possible by an endowed gift from William B. Quarton.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet
Adriana BORJA ENRÍQUEZ (fiction writer, poet; Ecuador) works as a psychologist, with a focus on human rights, gender-based violence, and refugee rights. Her short stories and poetry have been widely anthologized in South America and Europe. A winner of the International Poetry and Theater Castello di Duino Competition in 2013 and 2017, she has also received awards from the House of Ecuadorian Culture and elsewhere. Borja Enrìquez participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet
Gina COLE (fiction writer, poet; New Zealand) is the author of Black Ice Matter, which won Best First Book of Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and the winner of the 2014 Auckland Pride Festival’s creative writing competition for the poem “Airport Aubade”; her work is widely anthologized. She was keynote speaker at the 2017 Auckland Writers Festival and the Same Same But Different LGBTQIA+ Writing Festival. A barrister, she specializes in family law. Her participation is made possible by Creative New Zealand.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, publisher, translator
Bayasgalan BATSUURI Баясгалан Батсуурийн (poet, translator; Mongolia) has published 12 books of translation from English to Mongolian. Her English-language poetry collection Rain of the 13th Month came out in 2009; her poetry is widely anthologized. The founder of the publishing house Tagtaa, which aims to broaden gender representation in literature, in 2017 she was named Best Cultural Professional by the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet, visual artist
Umar TIMOL (poet, fiction writer, visual artist; Mauritius) is the author of four poetry volumes, two novels, and two comic books; his poetry collection 52 Fragments pour l’aimée [52 Fragments for the Beloved] (2016) received the Poetry Prize at the Moldova Poetry Festival. Timol is a teacher, photographer, founding member of the mixed-genre journal Point Barre, and a frequent presence at poetry festivals. His participation is made possible by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
2018 Resident
children's author, fiction writer, playwright, poet, translator
Kateryna BABKINA Катерина Бабкіна (fiction writer, poet, playwright; Ukraine) published her first book at age 17. Since then, she has authored three story collections, four volumes of poetry and two novels, with translations into 12 languages. Sonia was shortlisted for the 2013 BBC Book of the Year; three of her screenplays have been made into films, including Зло [Evil] and Жовта коробочка [The Yellow Box]. Her children’s book Шапочка і кит [Cappy and the Whale], a commercial success, raised funds for pediatric cancer. She participates courtesy of the Paul and Hualing Engle Fund.
2018 Resident
fiction writer
HUANG Chong-Kai 黃崇凱 (fiction writer; Taiwan) is the author of four novels including 黃色小說 [Blue Fiction] (2014), voted one of the Ten Best Books of The Year by The China Times Book Review, and 文藝春秋 [The Contents of the Times] (2017), winner of the 2018 TIBE Book Prize for Fiction, and one of Mirror Media Review’s Ten Best Books of 2017. He is a member of 字母會 [Alphabet Lab], a collective of experimental writers and critical theorists in Taiwan. Huang’s participation is made possible by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture.
2018 Resident
children's author, fiction writer, journalist, poet
Jacqueline GOLDBERG (poet, fiction writer, essayist, journalist; Venezuela) is the author of six books of prose, 10 children’s books, and 20 volumes of poetry. Her novel Las horas claras [The Clear Hours] received the 2012 prize of Fundación para la Cultura Urbana, was the Venezuelan Booksellers’ Book of the Year, a finalist for the Critic’s Award Novel for 2013, and was re-published in Mexico in 2018. Goldberg frequently speaks at literature and at food festivals. Her participation is made possible by the US Embassy in Caracas.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, poet
Faisal ODDANG (fiction writer, poet, essayist; Indonesia) is the author of three novels and two poetry anthologies. Puya ke puya [From One Heaven to Another] won the 2014 Jakarta Art Council novel competition, and in 2015 Tempo Magazine’s Best Novel prize. His other awards include ASEAN Young Writers Award, Prose Writer of the Year (Tempo Magazine, 2015), and Best Short Story Writers (Kompas Daily, 2014). He is now at work on a translation of the Sulawesi epic La Galigo. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, translator
Rasha KHAYAT (fiction writer, translator; Germany) is the author of the novel Weil wir längst woanders sind [For We Are Elsewhere Now] which has been nominated for the 2016 Klaus Michael Kühne Prize for best first novel, and translated into French and Arabic. A recipient of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Fellowship, the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Research Fellowship, and the Siegfried-Lenz Fellowship, she also writes for the theater and newspapers, mainly on multiculturalism. Her blog serves as a window into the Arab world for native Germans. She participates courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, journalist
Eman ALYOUSUF م. إيمان اليوسف (fiction writer, journalist; United Arab Emirates), a chemical engineer by training, is the author of three short story anthologies and three novels; Haris al-Shams [The Sun’s Guardian] won the 2016 Emirates Novel Awards. Her short film Ghafa was screened at the 2017 Dubai International Film Festival. A columnist and editor at AlRoeya newspaper, she has published a collection of interviews with female Emirati writers, and promotes literary culture at home and abroad. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet, translator
Haifa ABU AL-NADI (fiction writer, screenwriter, translator; Jordan) teaches English at the Applied Sciences University in Amman, and translates for the Kalima and Al-Qattan foundations. Author of screenplays and magazine articles, in 2012 she published the volume of stories على أهبة الحلم [On the Threshold of Dreaming] and, in 2016, the collection مُراودات [Propositions]. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
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