(born 1957, Fort Portal) is head of the French department at the Kitante Hill School in Kampala, where he teaches English and French. He is a graduate of Makerere University, and studied at the University of Clermont Ferrand in France and at the CELAB of Bjumbura. His first novel, Cherished Dreams, was published by Macmillan (London), and he is at work on a second novel, Prominent Figures. Mr. Mugarra's work is notable for its control of language, and its humor and instinct for dealing with social issues and mores in a manner appealing to Ugandans and other readers in the Great Lakes region. Two of his plays, written in French, have been performed in Uganda, Burundi, and France. His participation in the IWP is provided by the U.S. Department of State.
Chris KEULEMANS (1960) lives in Amsterdam, Holland. He is a writer of prose, essays, plays and journalism. He has published three books. His novel 'A short walk in the hills' was longlisted for the Dutch national book award 1994. Two of his short plays, 'Albanians' and 'Belanov', were performed by independent theatre groups in Amsterdam and Utrecht. 'Lands', a radio-drama, was this year's Dutch entry to the Prix d'Europe. From 1995 to 1999, he was managing director of De Balie, centre for culture and politics in Amsterdam. Since then, he has traveled extensively, visiting countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland and the USA. His travel stories appear in de Volkskrant, a leading Dutch daily. Currently, he is working on a novel/website/tv-documentary, titled 'The American I never was'. Having been raised in American schools in Bagdad and Jakarta during the sixties, he now tries to imagine the life he would have lead had he grown up in America, not Holland.
(fiction writer, filmmaker, the Netherlands, b. 1959, Sarajevo). Studied comparative literature and philosophy at Sarajevo University. Writes poetry, prose, plays. Published a collection of poems (TILT, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1984) as well as short stories in various magazines. His novel Trag zmajeve sape (The Print of a Dragonís Paw) was published in 1995 by B92 in Belgrade, and has been published translation in Polish, Dutch and German (under the title Yellow Snow). One of his short stories is published in the anthology of the satirical stories from Eastern and Central Europe Een paard dat Pools praat (Soeku, Utrecht 1998). His short films Travelling Children and Eight Years After (co-directed with Ademir Kenovic), parts of the SA-life film collection, were awarded the Golden Grain Ear at the 1993 Bienale del cinema per la pace in Pisa. In 1994 his short film Angels in Sarajevo, one of SAGAís productions, was awarded the European Film Academy's Felix Documentary Award.
(b. 1971 Santa Clara) is the author of the poetry collections "Las breves tribulaciones" (1989) and "Los pequeños prodigios y Estategias del páramo" (2000) and of plays including "Romanza del lirio" (1996). Two of his poems, "Vestido de novia" (bridal gown) and "Dejar la isla" (leaving the island) are among the most widely anthologized poems by younger Cuban poets. Espinosa is the director of the bookstore Libreria El Ateneo, works as a production assistant for Revista Tablas, and is one of the leaders of Teatro El Publico. He has also been the organizer for the last three years of the Semanas del Arte Homoerotico, a weeklong gay and lesbian cultural event in Havana.
is the editor of Egoist Magazine, and the author of several screenplays, including Truth or Dare (2001) which won the national contest for Best Screenplay on Channel One. More than fifty of her poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in literary magazines and other periodicals. She is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
is a writer quickly gaining international recognition. He has had five plays produced, most recently an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers . His novel Observatory Mansions, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Prize, is appearing in ten different countries. This novel, and his new novel Alva and Irva (2003), contain original artwork by the author.
is currently finishing his studies in French language and literature in Sarajevo. He has translated French novels by Rachid Mimouni and Kenize Mourad, and written a short story collection to be published later this year. He has also written plays—Podigni visoko baklju (Raise your torch!, 1996), and the prize-winning Zaista? (Really?, 2001) which was broadcast on Bosnian National Radio.. His participating through the courtesy of the Trust for Mutual Understanding. writing sample.
is a graduate of the Beijing School of Dramatics, and is called one of the foremost avant-garde playwrights in China. His productions in Chinese off-Broadway theaters have included The Rhinoceros in Love, Scandals from One Street, and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, adapted for Chinese. His latest film is Chicken Poets. He is participating courtesy of the Asian Cultural Council.
is very involved in Ugandan theater. A founding member and co-director of the drama group Teamline, he is a committee member of the Kampala Amateur Dramatic Society, and an executive member of the National Theater Guild. His works include A Time of Fire (1999), Between You and Me, and The Woman in Me. He is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
has written more than ten original plays for adults, two adaptations, and six children’s plays, almost all of which have been published by the distinguished magazines Playwright and Modern Playwriting. The plays Forever and Ever (1996) and The Red-Haired Play (2000) were both short-listed for the Anti-Booker prize, the latter forming the basis for a television film. She is participating courtesy of the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
is a writer quickly gaining international recognition. He has had five plays produced, most recently an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers . His novel Observatory Mansions, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Prize, is appearing in ten different countries. This novel, and his new novel Alva and Irva (2003), contain original artwork by the author.
writes under the pen name Hwang JiWoo. He is professor and chair of the Department of Playwriting at the Korean National University of Arts. He led a new wave of deconstructionist poetry in the 1980s, which was part of the new "rhetoric of resistance" in Korean literature. His subsequent work is described as embodying a native spirit, with its Korean Zen Buddhist traditions interwoven with paradox, vitality and wit. He is the author of six poetry collections, among them Even the Birds Leave the Land (1983), A Lotus in the Crab's Eye (199), I'll Sit Alone in a Darkened Pub (1998); four plays, including A Diary on the Fat Sofa (staged in 1994), Thirty Days in Prison, staged in 1999), and Bride May (2000). Hwang Jaewoo studied aesthetics and art history at Seoul National University. His education was interrupted by a forced enlistment in the army following his imprisonment for student activism against the military dictatorship. His work has received numerous national awards, including the Contemporary Literature Prize of 1991 and the DaeSan Foundation Prize in 1999. Recently, he published a play, A Materialistic Man (2003), and a translation of his poetry, Even Birds Leave the World (trans. Christopher Merrill and Won-Chung Kim), is forthcoming from White Pine Press.
(poet, fiction writer, journalist, librettist, playwright; b. 1960, Greece) has left few literary stones unturned. A novelist, poet, playwright, translator, and journalist, Mr. Stamatis is the author of five novels and five collections of poems, numerous translations and magazine articles, two opera librettos, and two plays. His most recent works are the novel Theseus Street (2003) and the poetry collection The Closer I Get the More the Future Gets Away (2004). Mr. Stamatis worked as a writer for the 2004 Olympic Games, and is currently the chief editor for foreign literature for the Metaixmio Publishing House. He has also worked as an architect. Mr. Stamatis is participating courtesy of the Greek Fulbright Commission.
(fiction writer, screenwriter, playwright, filmmaker; b. 1955, China) is a prize-winning, widely anthologized writer, with many TV and film credits. She has produced and directed in both media, venturing next to independent filmmaking. She has published over a dozen novellas, four collections of stories, two novels, and is currently at work on Another China , a documentary film project about expatriate Chinese writers in New York, and a new novel. Tang's numerous publications include Tell Laola I Love Her , a novella selected for inclusion in the Best Chinese Novellas of 2001 , W ife from America (1994) , a novel that was adapted for the stage, serialized in Liberation Daily , and won first prize for Stories Serialized in Newspapers and Magazines, Asexual Partners (2001), a novella that was also serialized, No Love in Shanghai (2002), and most recently, Senseless Journey (2003), a novella published in the Chinese journal Harvest. Ms. Tang is participating courtesy of the Asian Cultural Council.
has been called the most talented of the new wave of Russian dramatists. His complex, multilingual play "Steel Will" won the prestigious Anti-Booker Prize, and "Kitchen," a smash hit in Moscow, has been credited with helping steer Russian theater away from revivals, back towards contemporary work. As an actor, he was noted for his performances in verbatim theater. Although early in his career, Mr. Kurochkin has written fourteen plays, and has had his work adapted to film. He is participating courtesy of the Trust for Mutual Understanding Foundation.
(playwright, journalist; b. 1975, USSR; lives in Russia) is the author of six plays, including ãThe Lives of Simple People,ä produced in Kiev, and published in her native Ukraine; and ãGalka Motalka,ä to be published in the Moscow journal Contemporary Drama . She has worked as a journalist, an editor, and in television. She was also a contributor to ãOld People: Plans for the Future,ä a documentary play project. Her participation was made possible by the Trust for Mutual Understanding Foundation.
is a prize-winning fiction writer, playwright, and theater director who has lived and written for thirty years in Austria. Her recent works include "Goodbye, Galina" (a monologue for 5 voices) and the play "Odysseus Did Not Return." She is participating courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation.
is a poet, playwright and fiction writer who won the 1993 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award for Love Knots (performed 1993, pub. 1994 and translated into Italian) and the Hubert Church Award for a first book of fiction for The Wife Who Spoke Japanese in her Sleep (1993). She was a founding member of the Women's Play Press in 1992 and has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and writing grants. Her poem, "The Tank," won the 1998 NZ Poetry Society International Poetry Competition. Plumb's recent works include two collections of poetry, Salamanca (1998) and Avalanche (2000), a novella, The Diary as a Positive in Female Adult Behavior (2000), and a novel, Secret City (2003). A new poetry collection, Nefarious, is forthcoming this year. Ms. Plumb was most recently employed by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. She is participating courtesy of Creative New Zealand.
(playwright, director; b. 1955, China) is one of the best-known playwrights in Shanghai. Over the last several years, much of Mr. Zhang's work has been produced for the screen and the stage, nationally as well as internationally. Those Left Behind won "Best Film of Golden Pyramid Award" at the 16 th Cairo International Film Festival, and Xian was awarded a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) to further his studies of film and drama in New York City. A prominent figure in the arts community, Zhang has worked as the designer, curator, director, and organizer for a number of major art events in Shanghai. He is participating courtesy of the Freeman Foundation.
(playwright, essayist; b. 1959, Rwanda) has written several plays and essays about the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. As a child, Mr. Rurangwa and his family were moved to a refugee camp in Burundi where he began attending primary school. He moved on to study French literature at the University of Burundi, and in 1999 received a degree in African language and linguistics at the University of Brussels. His plays have been translated into Italian and performed in Rome. Mr. Rurangwa currently teaches social sciences at the National University of Rwanda in Kigali, and is the artistic director of a theatre group, Izuba, and of the cultural club 'Rara Avis' there. He is participating through the generosity of the University of Iowa.
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