was born in Tehran before her family repatriated in Armenia in 1975. One of the founders of the literary journal Inqnagir, she currently serves as its editor. The author of four books of poems, Grigoryan has won the Writers' Union of Armenia poetry award for [‘True, I’m Telling the Truth’] (1991), and the Golden Cane prize in literature for [‘The City’] (1998). Her poems have been anthologized in France, and in the English-language collections The Other Voice: Armenian Women’s Poetry Through the Ages (2006) and Deviation: Anthology of Contemporary Armenian Literature (2008). She participates courtesy of the US Embassy in Yerevan and the William B. Quarton Foundation.
2009 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker, non-fiction writer, poet
is a two-time winner of the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for The Sky Over Dimas (2004) and On Cursed Ground and Other Stories (2005), and the editor of a number of anthologies and collections of Filipino fiction. He has written four film scripts, including Agaton and Mindy (2009) and Namets! (2008), and directed several shorts. Currently he teaches at De La Salle University in Manila. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2009 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, playwright
was born in Melbourne to Cambodian parents. She has published the memoir Unpolished Gem (2006), which won the Australian Book Industry Association award for Newcomer of the Year and was short-listed for numerous other awards, ;and the short story collection Growing Up Asian in Australia (2008). Her work was also included in Best Australian Short Stories 2007. A lawyer by trade, she contributes regularly to The Age. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2009 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
. Alongside a job in banking, Rachedi has published articles in a wide variety of French periodical newspapers, including Metro and Respect Magazine. He is the author of two novels, Le petit Malik [‘Little Malik’] (2008) and Le Poids d’une âme [‘The Weight of a Soul’] (2006) and an essay, Éloge du miséreux [‘In praise of the down-and-out ’] (2007). Of Algerian heritage, he regularly comments on immigrant-related issues on television, radio, and other media, and is active in cultural and citizenship outreach programs. He participates courtesy of the US Embassy in Paris.
2005 Resident, 2009 Resident
non-fiction writer, poet, translator
is the author of seven books of poetry. Her essays and poems have appeared in Tinfish, Wasafiri, West Coast Line, 91st Meridian, Fulcrum, Zoland Poetry and many anthologies, with translations published in seven languages. Rao is currently completing a poetic translation of the Bhagavad Gītā from Sanskrit.
2009 Resident
non-fiction writer, poet
debuted with the poetry collection Touch (2006), and has published in The Little Magazine, the Quarterly Literary Review, Singapore, and elsewhere. A former editor of The Dalit that reflects the voice of India's ex-untouchables, she has also translated the writings of the Tamil Eelam leaders. In 2007 she was selected for 21 under 40: New Fiction for a New Generation, the Zubaan Anthology of Young Women Writing in South Asia. A short story collection, Black Magic, will come out later this year. A contributing editor to Muse India she also writes for the feminist blog Ultra Violet. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2009 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
made his debut with the short story "Scenes Along the Stream with Iron Stairs," which won the Daejeon Ilbo literary contest in 1998. The following year he won the Hankook Ilbo literary contest with "Boy Meets Girl." He has since published a novella, three short story collections and, in 2008, the novel This Much Trivial Melancholy . Kim has received an ACK Emerging Writers award, and currently edits at Samtoh and Thinking Tree Publishing. He participates courtesy of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI).
2009 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
has published three novels, [‘Idiots’] (2006), [‘The Iron’] (2008), and [‘The Water’] (2009), and two collections of short stories, [‘The Fighting Dog’] (2005) and [‘The Bed’], which was selected by Hyundae Munhak as the 2007 Best Novel of the Year. Kim has been a finalist for several literary awards, and was the recipient of the 1998 Munhakdongne prize for new writers. Currently she is an editor at Yolimwon Publishing, and works as a book reviewer for a number of newspapers and literary journals. Her participation is independently funded.
2007 40th Anniversary Guest, 2009 Visitor
non-fiction writer, translator
Eliot WEINBERGER was born in 1949 in New York City, where he still lives. He is the primary translator of Octavio Paz into English. His anthology American Poetry Since 1950: Innovators and Outsiders (Marsilio, 1993) was a bestseller in Mexico, and his edition of Jorge Luis Borges's Selected Non-Fictions (Penguin, 1999) received the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. In 1992, he received PEN's first Gregory Kolovakos Award for his work in promoting Hispanic literature in the United States, and in 2000 he was the first American literary writer to be awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the government of Mexico. He is the author of three books of literary essays and a collection of political articles, What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), all published by New Directions. His essay "What I Heard About Iraq" became an Internet phenomenon, was adapted into a hit play, and read at antiwar demonstrations throughout the world. His latest book is titled An Elemental Thing (New Directions, 2007).
2009 Visitor
non-fiction writer, poet, scholar
is a poet, prose-writer, and scholar. She was born in 1975 in Irkutsk. Currently, she is a research fellow at the Russian Language and Literature Department of Irkutsk State University. She is the author of one book of poetry, Dagaz (OGI Press, 2005). Her work has appeared in journals collections, and anthologies, and she has contributed to numerous online literary publications. She was awarded the Debut Prize for Poetry in 2000. She is an author of poems, short prose, children’s poetry and fairytales, and a translator of poetry. Boyarskikh’s writing has been translated into English, French, and Ukrainian. She is a nominator and jury member for the LiteratuRRentgen Prize, for which she recommends and considers the work of young poets under 25 living outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Boyarskikh’s poetry is included in An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets (University of Iowa Press, 2005). Selection from Work
2009 Visitor
non-fiction writer, poet
, a poet and prose-writer, was born in 1981 in Perm. She lives and works in Moscow, where she is a journalist with First of September, a newspaper, and a frequent contributor to the literary journal Novy Mir. She was recognized as a promising young writer in 2002, when she was shortlisted for the Debut Prize for Poetry. In 2006 she published her first book of poems, White Pioneers (ARGO-Risk Press). Her novel, A Train Named Russia(Rossiya: Obshy Vagon), was published in Novy Mir (No. 1, 2006), and was nominated for the National Bestseller Prize. It was subsequently published as an independent volume (Limbus Press, 2007), and has been translated into five languages. Her story, A Year in Paradise, which appeared in Novy Mir (No 11, 2007), received the 2007 Yury Kazakov Prize and the Eureka Prize. Kluchareva is one of the authors featured in Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia (forthcoming in the U.S. from Tin House Books in September 2009).
2010 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, translator
is the editor of The New Literature of Kyrgyzstan. His books include [The Sufferings of Young Berdi] (2008), [Phoenix] (2008), and [Wall] (1990); the documentary tales [They Always Came Together…] (2004) and [Coronet for the Noble Man] (2003); and the encyclopedia [Ketmen-tobo] (2002-2007). He has translated Verlaine, Twain, Hemingway, Wilde, de Saint-Exupery, and Mahmud al-Kashgary; he is the recipient of numerous literary awards and a Soros Foundation prize. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2010 Resident
non-fiction writer, poet, translator
is the author of of a book of essays in verse and prose titled Цмокі лятуць на нераст (2008)while also frequently contributing to various media projects, including “34” (www.34mag.net), “Novy chas” (www.novychas.org), RFE/Radio Liberty (www.svaboda.org), the arts and literature magazines pARTisan, ARCHE (www.arche.by), and Дзеяслоў (www.dziejaslou.by), as well as blogs. She also translates from Czech, English, Polish and Ukrainian. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2010 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
is the Managing Editor of the journal Kwani. His writings have been published in Granta, Kwani and Vanity Fair. He has recently edited Kenya Burning, and is an Editor of the Picha Mtaani/Kwani book project. He has a book of creative nonfiction, The True Story of David Munyakei (2009), as well as the script credit for Soul Boy (2010, Dir. Tom Tykwer). He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2010 Resident
non-fiction writer, poet
is the recipient of the 2005 Kim Dal Jin Literary Prize. She is the author of four poetry collections; Anxiety Encroaches upon a Soul (1996), Ten Thousand Fish Fly up a Mountain (2000), Self Portrait in Hempen Mourning Clothes (2004), and Cherry Trees Blossoming in My Cottage (2007). Cho Yong Mee has also published a collection of essays, titled One Hundred Years on an Island (2007). Since 2009, she’s written a regular column for KyungHyang newspaper. She participates courtesy of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI).
2011 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer, poet
Joel TOLEDO (poet, fiction writer, nonfiction writer; Philippines) is the literary editor at The Philippine Free Press and a professor of literature at Miriam College. His reviews and columns have been featured in newspapers and magazines including The Philippine Star and The Manila Times; his creative work has appeared, among other places, in Rogue Poetry Review, Washington Square, Sunday Times Magazine, and P.E.N. 50th Anniversary Anthology of Poetry in English. He is the author of four books of poetry, including Chiaroscuro (2008) and The Long Lost Startle (2009), the children's book Pedro and the Lifeforce (1997), and of the screenplays for Todo Todo Teros and Philippine Bliss, screened at the 2007 Rotterdam Film Festival. Among his awards is the 2005 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for the collection What Little I Know of Luminosity, while Chiaroscuro was a finalist for the 2008 Philippines National Book Award for Poetry. A fifth poetry collection is due out this year. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2011 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Ajit BARAL (fiction writer, nonfiction writer; Nepal) runs a publishing house and a bookstore in Kathmandu. He has published Interviews Across Time and Space (2007), a collection of conversations with international writers, and of The Lazy Conman and Other Stories: Folktales from Nepal (2009); he is also the co-editor of the short story collection New Nepal, New Voices (2008), and a coordinator, until recently, of the literary supplement Akshar of Nagarik daily. His writings appear in national journals, international magazines and book volumes. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2011 Resident
non-fiction writer
Kevin BLOOM (nonfiction writer; South Africa) has written for many South African and international publications, including the Guardian and Times in the U.K., The National of the UAE, and Global Brief of Canada. In broadcast media, he was contracted to CBC as a radio essayist during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and has worked as a presenter and co-writer of investigative documentaries. In 2010 his narrative nonfiction book, Ways of Staying (2009), won the South African Literary Award for literary journalism. He is currently co-writing a book entitled Whiteout: The advance of the Chinese and the twilight of the European in Africa. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2011 Resident
fiction writer, non-fiction writer
Maria Sonia CRISTOFF (novelist, nonfiction writer; Argentina) teaches creative writing and Patagonian literature. Her literary pieces and criticism have been published in newspapers and magazines such as La Nación, Clarín, Página 12, Perfil and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Noticias, Latido, TXT, Siwa, Letras Libres and Otra Parte. Cristoff is the author of the travelogue Falsa Cama [Deceptive Calm] (2005), the novella Desubicados [Misfits] (2006) and the novel Bajo influencia [Under the Influence] (2010), and the editor of three story and essay collections Patagonia (2005), Idea crónica [Chronical Idea] (2006) and Pasaje a Oriente [Passage to the Orient] (2009). She participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires.
2011 Resident
non-fiction writer
Lynley HOOD (nonfiction writer; New Zealand) is a scientist and independent scholar. Her nonfiction includes Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1988), which won the PEN Best First Book of Prose Award, the Goodman Fielder Wattie Award, and the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind’s Talking Book of the Year award, and A City Possessed (2001), which won the Montana Medal, the Readers’ Choice Award and the Skeptics Bravo Award. Her play The Baby Farmer (1996) has been staged, and performed on the radio. Hood was named one of The Press’s ‘Six of the Best New Zealanders’ in 2001, and one of North & South magazine’s ‘New Zealanders who made a difference’ in 2003. Her participation is provided courtesy of Creative New Zealand.
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