Sara JARAMILLO KLINKERT (journalist, novelist, screenwriter; Colombia) has worked for numerous newspapers and major media channels in Colombia. Her autobiographical novel Cómo maté a mi padre [How I killed my father] came out in 2019; a second novel, Donde cantan las ballenas [Where the whales sing], appeared in 2021. She has a MA from Escuela des escritores (Madrid) and lives in Medellín. Her participation was made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.
2022 Spring Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
TJ (Tarfa) BENSON (fiction writer, non-fiction writer, editor, visual artist; Nigeria) has had writing appear in Transition Magazine, Saraba, Jalada Africa, Catapult, Bakwa Magazine and elsewhere. His story collection We Won’t Fade into Darkness (2018) was shortlisted for the Saraba Manuscript Prize; his first novel, The Madhouse, appeared in 2021. A grant from the U.S. Embassy in Abuja made possible his participation.
2022 Spring Resident
children's author, editor, fiction writer, journalist
Shehan KARUNATILAKA (novelist, screenwriter; Sri Lanka) has authored the novels Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew (2010) and Chats with the Dead (2020) as well as the children’s book Please Don’t Put That in Your Mouth (2019). The recipient of the 2008 Gratiaen Prize, the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize, and the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, he also writes on sport, music, and travel for major newspapers and magazines. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Spring Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, poet
Tariro NDORO (poet, fiction, nonfiction; Zimbabwe) is the author of the poetry collection Agringada: Like a Gringa, Like a Foreigner (2019), which won the inaugural NAMA Award for Outstanding Poetry Book from Zimbabwe's National Arts Council. A finalist in several other poetry competitions, she has had her work anthologized and translated. Ndoro, who has a BSc in Microbiology and an M.A. in Creative Writing, lives in Harare. Her participation in the 2022 Spring Residency is made possible by the U.S. State Department.
2022 Spring Resident
critic, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, scholar
Silvia HOSSEINI (non-fiction; Finland) is a Tampere-based teacher, literary critic, and media commentator, and the author of essay collections Pölyn ylistys [In Praise of Dust] (2018) and Tie, totuus ja kuolema [The Way, The Truth, and Death] (2021). Hosseini was awarded the Kalevi Jäntti Prize and has been nominated for both the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize and the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize. She participates courtesy of an anonymous donor.
2022 Spring Resident
fiction writer, scholar, translator
Angel IGOV Ангел Игов (novelist, translator, scholar; Bulgaria). teaches English literature and Translation at Sofia University. He is the author of three novels, among them Фини прахови частици [Particulate Matter] (2017), shortlisted for the Novel of the Year Award; Кротките [The Meek] (2015), whose German translation shared the 2020 HKW International Literary Prize; Кратка повест за срама (2011), appearing in the US as A Short Tale of Shame (2013); and two collections of short stories. Igov translates contemporary British and American prose and poetry. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Spring Resident
fiction writer
Jidanun LUEANGPIANSAMUT จิดานันท์ เหลืองเพียรสมุท (fiction writer; Thailand) has published more than 20 novels, largely in the sci-fi and romance genres. The youngest-ever winner, in 2017, of the Southeast Asian Writers Award, she specializes in dystopian and LGBT themes, and YA literature. Her novel เฟื่องนคร [City of Stars] has been translated into English and Chinese, and will be the basis of a TV series. Her participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2022 Spring Visitor
fiction writer, journalist, scholar
VISITOR:
Beaudelaine PIERRE, journalist, scholar, and novelist, writes about her native Haiti and her adopted Youwès. She is the author of You May Have the Suitcase Now (2021) and the co-editor of the trilingual anthology How to Write an Earthquake / Comment écrire et quoi écrire / Mou pou 12 Janvyé (2011). Her debut novel Testaman appeared in 2002, followed by La Nėgresse de Saint Domingue (2010) and L'enfant qui voulait devenir président (2012). A 2007 alum of the International Writing Program, she is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Saint Catherine University in Saint-Paul Minnesota.
2022 Spring Visitor
editor, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, publisher, scholar
IWP alum Billy Karanja KAHORA is the author of the non-fiction novella The True Story Of David Munyakei (2010) and the story collection The Cape Cod Bicycle War (2019). His stories have been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for Africa Writing; among his award-winning screenplays are those for Soul Boy and Nairobi Half Life. His work has appeared in Chimurenga, McSweeney’s, Granta Online, Internazionale, Vanity Fair, Kwani? , and elsewhere. Among his numerous organizational appointments, he has been the managing editor of Kwani Trust, a Nairobi-based literary network, and the curator of its festival. A founding partner of Saseni!, a creative writing teaching platform, he currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Bristol (UK).
2023 Resident
editor, fiction writer, journalist, non-fiction writer
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.
2023 Resident
editor, fiction writer
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.
2023 Resident
critic, editor, fiction writer, poet, translator
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, poet, visual artist
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.
2023 Resident
editor, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, playwright, poet, translator
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer, poet
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer, poet
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.
2023 Resident
fiction writer, translator
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.
2023 Resident
children's author, editor, fiction writer, poet
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.
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