FUJINO Kaori 藤野可織 (fiction writer; Japan) writes short stories and novellas about the horror that lurks behind everyday life. In 2006 she won the Bungakukai Prize for New Writers for her story “Iyashii tori” [The Greedy Bird]. She was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize in 2009 before winning it in 2013 for her acclaimed novella Tsume to me [Nails and Eyes]. Her book O hanashi shite ko-chan [Little Miss Tell-Me-a-Story] was published by Kodansha the same year. Her most recent collection of stories is Final Girl (2016). Fujino’s participation is made possible by the Japan Foundation.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Panashe CHIGUMADZI (novelist, essayist; South Africa/Zimbabwe) is the author of the novel Sweet Medicine, which won the 2016 K. Sello Duiker Literary Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times,The Guardian, Die Zeit, and elsewhere. A founding editor of Vanguard Magazine, a platform for black women in post-apartheid South Africa, she curated, in 2016, Soweto’s Abantu Book Festival for black readers and writers. Beautiful Hair for a Landless People is her forthcoming book of essays. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, poet
Hajar BALI (playwright, fiction writer, poet; Algeria) was, until 2016, a professor of mathematics at the University of Sciences and Technology in Algiers. Her collection of plays, Rêve et vol d’oiseaux [Dream and Birdflight] appeared in 2010; a collection of stories, Trop tard, in 2014. She has held writing residencies in France and Switzerland, and is now the general secretary of the L’Imago Cultural Association in Algiers. Her participation is made possible by an anonymous gift to the IWP.
2017 Resident
editor, fiction writer, poet
Tilottama MAJUMDER তিলোত্তমা মজুমদার (fiction writer, poet; India) won the Ananda Puroshkar, given for excellence in Bengali literature, for her novel Basudhara (2003); more than ten titles have followed. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into several Indian languages, including English; she also writes for children. She works at the Ananda Publishers in Kolkata. Her participation is courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2017 Resident
fiction writer, poet, scholar, translator
Antoinette TIDJANI ALOU (fiction writer, poet, translator, scholar; Niger) teaches literature and directs the Program of Performing Arts at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey. She has been the president of the International Society for Oral Literatures of Africa, and a collaborator on the “Women Writing Africa” project. Her first work, On m’appelle Nina, retraces the exilic experiences of a woman who leaves Jamaica for France, then Niger. A short story collection, a volume of poetry and a memoir are forthcoming. She 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
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.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker, screenwriter
Iva PEZUASHVILI (novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker; Georgia) is the author of two story collections, most recently [The Book of Tbilisi] (2017). A filmmaker by training, he has written and/or directed a number of short films, animated series, and season-long TV dramas. The recipient of several awards, most recently he was the “best nominee” for the Tsinandali Best Prose Prize. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet
Dan COMAN (fiction writer, poet; Romania) has published four books of poems and three novels. Winner of the 2004 Mihai Eminescu Award for the poetry collection anul cârtiței galbene [The Year of the Yellow Mole], Coman has also received the 2004 Romanian Writers Union Prize, the 2011 Crystal Vilenica Prize, and Radio Romania’s Cultural Awards for 2011 and 2017. His work has been anthologized, and translated into seven languages, English included. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Amara Nicole OKOLO (fiction writer, non-fiction writer; Nigeria) is the author of the novel Black Sparkle Romance (2014) and the story collection Son of Man (2016). A participant in Chimamanda Adichie’s Farafina Creative Writing Workshop (2015) and the Invisible Borders TransAfrican Project (2017), she often speaks at book events and festivals. She is also a practicing lawyer. Her participation was made possible by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2018 Resident
critic, fiction writer
Alisa GANIEVA Алиса Ганиева (fiction writer, editor, critic, journalist; Russia) is the author of three books, including the novels Жених и невеста (2015), shortlisted for the Russian Booker, which appeared in English as Bride and Groom, and Праздничная гора (2012) shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana literary prize (the English version is The Mountain and the Wall ). Her story collection Салам тебе, Далгат! [Salaam, Dalgat!] won the 2009 Debut Prize, to controversy and acclaim. In 2017, Ganieva was a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A 2012 IWP Resident, she returns to UI courtesy of Grinnell College.
2018 Resident
fiction writer, poet
Tehila HAKIMI תהילה חכימי (poet, fiction writer; Israel) writes poetry, fiction and graphic novels. Her poetry volume מחר נעבוד [We’ll Work Tomorrow] (2014) received the 2015 Bernstein Prize for Literature, and, alongside her graphic novel במים [In the Water], the Yehoshua Rabinowitz Foundation Prize for Literature. Hakimi received the 2014 Israeli Ministry of Culture Prize for Emerging Poets. She works as a mechanical engineer. Her participation is made possible by the United States-Israel Educational Foundation.
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.
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