The Atayal writer and activist WALIS Nokan 瓦歷斯‧諾幹 (poetry, nonfiction, fiction; Taiwan) founded the Hunter Culture Magazine (獵人文化雜誌), which developed into the Research Center for Humanities of Taiwan’s Aboriginal Peoples. An author of two dozen books, most recently a volume of flash fiction [Path of Dreams], he has received awards that include the United Daily News critics’ top honors for prose, and Ministry of Education’s Award for Literary Creation. He participates courtesy of the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.
2019 Resident
fiction writer, publisher
Shadreck CHIKOTI (fiction; Malawi) co-directs Pan African Publishers, and is the founder of The Story Club Malawi. He is also the founder of the Kenyenyeva ministries, which serves vulnerable children, and of the Feminart Arts and Book Festival. Writing in English and Chichewa, he participated in the 2011 Caine Prize Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of nine books of speculative fiction; the novel Azotus the Kingdom won the 2013 Peer Gynt Literary Award. He participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe.
2019 Resident
editor, fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Clara CHOW 赵燕芬 (fiction, nonfiction, drama; Singapore) is a short story writer, editor, columnist, co-founder of the arts and literature magazine WeAreAWebsite.com, and author of two short story collections. Named among Singapore’s Top 12 Writers to Watch, she won the 2018 Jane Geske Award for her story “Siren (Redux).” Chow participates courtesy of National Arts Council Singapore.
2021 Resident
activist, fiction writer, translator
Edwige DRO (translator, activist, writer; Côte d’Ivoire) is a co-founder of the collective Abidjan Lit and the founder of 1949, “a library of women’s writings from Africa and the black world.” She has facilitated, judged, and translated for many writing competitions, and coordinated the Francophone program of Writivism in Uganda. Her stories and essays, published in magazines like Popula, This is Africa and the Johannesburg Review of Books, have been widely anthologized. She participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire).
2021 Resident
activist, fiction writer, poet, scholar
Diana DEL ÁNGEL (fiction writer, journalist, poet, scholar, activist; Mexico) is the author of Vasija [Vessel] (2013), Procesos de la noche [Processes of the night] (2017) and Barranca [Ravine] (2018), as well as of critical writing in print and digital media; she has also translated poetry from the Nahuatl. A regular participant in contemporary poetry workshops in Mexico, she has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies in Mexico, USA, and Canada. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2021 Resident
editor, fiction writer, journalist, playwright, screenwriter
Alexandra K* (KATSAROU) Αλεξάνδρα Κ* (fiction, drama, screenwriting, journalism; Greece) has collaborated with the National Theatre of Greece, the Greek National Opera and other major cultural institutions. Ηer 2018 play Επαναστατικές Μέθοδοι για τον Καθαρισμό της Πισίνας σας [Revolutionary Ways to Clean Your Swimming Pool] has been translated widely, and received a Eurodram 2019 Prize; her most recent play [Milk, Blood], based on Medea, premiered at the ancient theater of Epidaurus. She is a regular contributor to Greek magazines and newspapers. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2021 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Sarah BLAU שהרה בלאו (fiction writer, playwright; Israel) has had her short stories published in many anthologies in Israel and abroad. Among her novels are [The Book of Creation] (2007), [Those Well-Raised Girls] (2012), [Stake] (2014) and The Others (2018; English translation 2021); among her plays are [The Last One] (2004), [Thy Shall Write] (2014) and [Rhinoplasty] (2105). She is the recipient of the 2017 Bar-Ilan University Alumni Achievement Award, and of the 2015 Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Literature. She participates courtesy of Fulbright Israel.
2021 Resident
fiction writer
Salha OBAID صالحة عبيد (fiction; UAE) published her first story collection, [Alzheimer],in 2010; it was followed by [Postman of Happiness] (2012) and [iPad of Life in the Manner of Zorba] (2014); the collection [An Implicitly White Lock of Hair] (2015) won the 2016 Al Owais Award for Creative Writing. Her first novel [Maybe It’s a Joke] appeared in 2018. A member of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority Council and of the Association of Emirati Women Writers, in 2017 she was awarded the Young Emiratis Prize. Her participation was made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2021 Resident
fiction writer
KIM Hena 김혜나 (fiction writer, South Korea) studied Korean language and literature at the University of Cheong-ju. Her first novel, [Jerry], was the 2010 winner of Today’s Author Prize; the second, [Junk], was long listed for the 2013 Dong-In Prize of Literature; [The Goldstar Telephone] received the 2016 Soorim Prize of Literature. She has also published a book of essays on yoga, [What Makes Me Breathe]. She participates courtesy of Arts Council Korea.
2021 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Candace CHONG Mui Ngam 莊梅岩 (playwright, screenwriter, translator; Hong Kong) has, apart from writing drama, also collaborated in musical theatre and opera as writer and librettist. Selected by the South China Morning Post as one of Hong Kong’s 25 most inspirational and influential women, she is a six-times winner of the Hong Kong Drama Awards, the recipient of a Best Artist Award (Drama) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and of a number of international honors. Her plays have been performed on European and American stages, translated, and published. She participates courtesy of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
2021 Resident
fiction writer
Dominika SŁOWIK (fiction writer; Poland) is the author of two novels, Atlas Doppelganger (2015), finalist for the 2016 Gdynia Literary Prize, and Zimowla (2019), which won the national award Paszport Polityki 2020 alongside other honors; Samosiejki, a collection of stories, appeared in 2021. She also writes reviews, and a regular literary column. Słowik's current work is dedicated to the Anthropocene and climate change. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2021 Resident
fiction writer
Muthi NHLEMA (fiction; Malawi) writes speculative fiction. His novella Ta O’reva was shortlisted for Best Novella at the inaugural 2017 Nommo Awards for African Speculative Fiction; other work has also won his country's leading literary prize, FMB-MAWU Short Story Prize, and been long-listed for the Writivism Short Story Prize. The story "One Wit’ This Place" opened the 2016 Imagine Africa 500 anthology. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe (Malawi).
2021 Visitor
activist, editor, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, poet
The recipient of a Caine Prize, a Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Literary Achievement, Helon HABILA is the author of six volumes of fiction and non-fiction, the editor of several collections of writing, and a publisher. His most recent novel is Travelers (2019). The first African Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia, he was the inaugural Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College; his current appointment is at George Mason University, where Professor Habila teaches in the disciplines of Creative Writing, English, and Global Affairs. An IWP 2004 alum, he returns as our 2021 Ida Beam Distinguished Visitor.
2021 Visitor
activist, editor, fiction writer, journalist, non-fiction writer, physician, poet
IWP '05 alumna Ma Thida is a Burmese surgeon, writer, poet, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience. Among her nine books are The Sunflower (1999), The Roadmap (2011) and the memoir Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard (2012). Recently elected as Chair of The Writers in Prison committee of PEN International, she is the founder and past president of PEN Myanmar and past board member of PEN International; in 2016 she was the first recipient of the Václav Havel Foundation’s “Disturbing the Peace” award. At present (2021), she is a visiting research associate at Yale’s Southeast Asia Studies program.
2022 Fall Resident
fiction writer
Cherie JONES (fiction; Barbados) was a finalist for UK’s 2021 Women’s Prize in Fiction for her first novel How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, now published in the UK, U.S., and in French and German translations. Her first story collection, The Burning Bush Women & Other Stories, appeared in 2004; other short fiction came out in Feminist Wire and elsewhere, and was broadcast on BBC. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State has provided the grant for her participation.
2022 Fall Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker, playwright
Briar GRACE-SMITH (filmmaker, screenwriter, playwright, fiction writer; New Zealand) is of Ngā Puhi (Māori) descent. In 2018, she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her contribution to stage, television, and screen; in 2017, she was recognized with Te Tohu Toi Kē a Te Waka Toi for her contribution to Māori arts. She is the author or co-author of eight stage plays, a collaborator on many TV programs and the director or co-director of six short films and features, most recently Cousins (2021). Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Fall Resident
fiction writer, poet, publisher
Safinah Danish ELAHI (fiction writer, poet; Pakistan) is a lawyer by training. She is the author of the poetry collection The Unbridled Romance of Love and Pain (2019) and two novels, most recently Eye on the Prize (2020), which has since been turned into a TV film. She also contributes to Pakistani newspapers and magazines, and is the founder of Reverie Publishers, whose goal it is to guide the country’s emerging Anglophone writers. Her participation was made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Fall Resident
fiction writer, playwright, poet, scholar
Endalegeta KEBEDE እንዳለጌታ ከበደ (fiction writer, poet, playwright, researcher; Ethiopia) is the author of over a dozen novels, stories, poems and staged plays. Among his titles are ከጥቁር ሰማይ ስር [Under The Dark Sky], የቃቄ ወርድወት እምቢ [The Defiant Woman], and በዓሉ ግርማ፡- ሕይወቱና ሥራዎቹ [Baalu: His Life and Works]. With a PhD in Folklore Studies, he has been an arts director at the Ethiopia Academy of Science, and the General Secretary of Ethiopian Writers Association. He is also the founder and manager of the Zagol Book Bank. He participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.
2022 Fall Resident
fiction writer, performance artist, poet, visual artist
Jamie Marina LAU 劉劍冰 (fiction, poetry, performance; Australia) has published Pink Mountain on Locust Island (2018) and Gunk Baby (2021), which garnered her a number of awards; her stories, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Voiceworks and elsewhere. She also works with digital arts and music/sound composition. Her residency is supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Fall Resident
editor, fiction writer, journalist
Mashiul ALAM মশিউল আলম (journalist, fiction writer, translator; Bangladesh) has published 12 novels and novellas, and eight collections of short stories; among the titles are Tanusreer Songey Dwitiyo Raat [Second Night with Tanusree] (2000), Mangsher Karbar [The Meat Market] (2002), Abedalir Mrittur Por [After Abedali's Death] (2004), and Pakistan (2011). Among his many published stories, “Milk” was awarded the 2019 Himal South Asian Short Story Prize; a collection of his stories, in Shabnam Nadiya's translation, won a 2020 PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant. He has translated Russian classics into Bengali. In 2019, he was awarded the debut Sylhet Mirror Prize for Literature. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State
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