has studied in Dublin, at the German Creative Writing Program Leipzig and at the University for Film in Munich and written for Süddeutsche Zeitung, His plays “U-Turn” and “Memory”, have been staged in major theatres in Vienna, Munich, Heidelberg and Nuremberg. For his first novel [Amongst Loners] he won the Juergen Ponto-Stiftung prize; his second book [A Knock at the Door] was published 2009. The third, [A Hidden Human], will appear in 2011; his first movie script will also be produced that year. His participation is privately funded.
2010 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, poet
, author of more than 60 books, Hoque also writes poetry, television and film scripts, and a newspaper column. His novels include Aetodin Kothai Chhilen [Where Have You Been] (2009), which won the Citi Bank-Anando Alo Award for Best Novel; Maa [Mother] (2003); Andhokarer Aeksho Bachhor [One Hundred Years of Darkness] (1993) and others. He has written for many television dramas and four feature-length films, receiving awards as a fiction writer and playwright. Trained as a civil engineer, Hoque is now the deputy editor of the daily Prothom Alo. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.
2011 Resident
non-fiction writer, playwright
Jamyang NORBU (novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer; Tibet) is an activist and a blogger for Shadow Tibet, Rangzen.net and Huffington Post. He is also the author of three essay collections on Tibetan politics and culture, Illusion and Reality, Shadow Tibet and Buying the Dragon's Teeth. His 1999 novel The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes won India's Crossword Book Award, and has appeared in over a dozen languages. While directing the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamshala, Norbu wrote plays as well as a traditional Tibetan opera libretto; he is the editor of, and contributor to, the volume Performing Traditions of Tibet. A founding director of the Tibetan Centre for Advanced Studies (the Amnye Machen Institute), Norbu has edited the Institute's journal of history and culture, Lungta, and its newspaper Mangtso. He presently lives in Monteagle, TN. His residency is sponsored by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.
2011 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, translator
Milena ODA Onetti (fiction writer, playwright, translator; Germany) was born in Czechoslovakia and now works in Berlin as an editor, translator and journalist for Radio WDR, Der Freitag, Prager Zeitung, Literární noviny, and others. Her play Mehr als Meer was staged at the Central European Theatre Festival and at the 2009 Forum of Independent Theatre Groups in Alexandria. Oda is the recipient of the 2007 Marguerite d'Or in Vienna, and was nominated for the 2007 Ingeborg-Bachmann award. Her work, in German, Czech, and English, has been featured in the Entdeckungen 2. Cd/DVD Anthology, Ostragehege, Labyrint Revue, Lauter Niemand, Volltext, and Contact. In 2010 she published her first novel, Nennen Sie mich Diener [Please Call Me Servant]. She participates courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation.
2011 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Zoë STRACHAN (novelist, playwright; Scotland) teaches creative writing at the University of Glasgow, and is the author of the novels Negative Space (2002), Spin Cycle (2004) and Ever Fallen in Love (2011). Her work has appeared in the Sunday Herald, Bamberger Punkt 14 (Germany), Bordercrossing Berlin, The Big Issue, The Antigonish Review, The Scotsman Magazine, Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature's Explorer magazine, in the anthologies SHIFTS, The Research Club, Latitute, and New Writing 15, on BBC Radio and in other radio programs. The author of the plays Panic Patterns and Old Girls and the short opera Sublimation, she is at work on an adaptation of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea for Scottish Opera's 2012 season. She has also collaborated on conceptual art, sound, and prose pieces. Her website is www.zoestrachan.com. She participates courtesy of the British Council.
2011 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, translator
Jeremy TIANG (fiction writer, playwright, translator; Singapore) has acted in nearly 30 stage, television and film productions. His plays Polyglottalstop (2008), A Dream of Red Pavilions (2008), and godshaped hole (2010) were staged in London, and Operation Opera (2003) in Singapore. His story "Trondheim" won the NAC Golden Point Award. He has led theatre and creative writing workshops, translated plays from the Chinese, and contributed film, theatre, and book reviews to The Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Straits Times, The Arts Magazine, and The Flying Inkpot. Tiang's participation is made possible by a grant from the Singapore National Arts Council.
2011 Resident
playwright
Louise WELSH (novelist, playwright, essayist; Scotland) is the author of the novels The Cutting Room (2002), Tamburlaine Must Die (2004), The Bullet Trick (2006) and Naming the Bones (2010). A recipient of numerous awards, among them the Saltire First Book Award, Spirit of Scotland Writing Award and City of Glasgow Lord Provost's Award for Literature, she was included in Waterstone's 2007 list of Twenty-five Authors for the Future. Her essays and articles have appeared in The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, BBC Online, The Sunday Times, on the stage and on the radio; her work is translated into twenty languages. She frequently presents for BBC Radio. Her participation is privately funded.
2012 Resident
playwright
CHOI Myoung Sook (playwright; South Korea) is a lecturer of drama and modern culture at Soonchunhyang and Baeksuk Universities. She has written six staged plays, including 모텔 피아노 [Motel Piano] (2007), 두 아이 [Two Daughters](2011) and directed the [Actors Read Novels] series in Seoul from 2008 to 2012. The title play for her published collection, 그리고 또 하루 [And Again, Another Day] (2009), was staged at the 33rd Seoul Theatre Festival in 2012 and won the prize for drama. Her participation is funded by Arts Council Korea.
2012 Resident
playwright, poet
Dimitris LYACOS (poet, playwright; Greece/Italy) is the author of the cross- genre trilogy Poena Damni, which includes Z213: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ [Z213: EXIT] (published in English in 2010), ΜΕ ΤΟΥΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΥΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΓΕΦΥΡΑ [With the People From the Bridge], and Ο ΠΡΩΤΟΣ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ [The First Death]. The trilogy has been translated into six languages, and staged in theatres across Europe and the U.S., inspiring works in various media including a sound and sculpture installation, paintings, and a dance adaptation. Lyacos’ participation is made possible by a grant from the Counting Art non-profit organization and Athens-based ABOUT Cultural Venue.
2012 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Christopher MLALAZI (fiction writer, playwright; Zimbabwe) is the author of the novels Many Rivers (2009) and Running With Mother (2012), and the short story collection Dancing With Life: Tales From the Township (2008), which won the Best First Book award at the National Arts Merit Awards. Mlalazi’s eight plays, including the 2008 Oxfam/Novib PEN Freedom of Expression Award winner “The Crocodile Of Zambezi,” have all been staged. His poems and stories are online and in print, including in the Caine Prize’s anthology The Obituary Tango (2006) and in The Literary Review. He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2013 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, screenwriter
Shandana MINHAS (fiction writer; Pakistan) has been a columnist, a teacher, an actor, a screenwriter, a playwright, and more. Her novel Tunnel Vision (2007) was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book; a second title Survival Tips For Lunatics, for young readers, will be published in 2014. Minhas is currently working on a collection of short stories and another novel. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2013 Resident
children's author, playwright
Karim ALRAWI (playwright, fiction writer; Canada/UK/Egypt) writes stage plays in both Arabic and English. He is also the author of several radio and TV plays, and children’s books. He was resident writer at the Royal Court Theatre and the Theatre Royal Stratford East (England), has held writing residencies in the US and Canada, and teaching positions at universities in all three countries. His national and international honors include the John Whiting Award and the Samuel Becket Award. Karim participates courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Arts Council of British Columbia.
2013 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, screenwriter
Whiti HEREAKA (playwright, novelist, screenwriter; New Zealand) has written and produced eight plays for stage and radio, as well as the short film Unclaimed Luggage. Her debut novel The Graphologist’s Apprentice was shortlisted for the 2011 First Book in the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Asia/Pacific region); her second novel, Bugs, will be published later this year. She is a two-time winner of the Best New Play by a Maori Playwright. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2013 Resident
playwright, poet
Martin DYAR (poet, playwright; Ireland) is the author of the poetry collection Maiden Names (2012; Arlen/Syracuse U P), winner of the 2009 Patrick Kavanagh Award. His play ‘Tom Loves a Lord’ was staged at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Dublin in 2011. Among his projects are collaborations with musicians, broadcasters, medical practitioners and patients. Presently, Dyar teaches in the Medical Humanities Program in the School of Medicine of Trinity College, Dublin. He participates courtesy of the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
2013 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
TONG Wei Ger (童偉格, fiction writer, playwright; Taiwan) is the author of the short story collection 王考 [Wang Kao] (2002), and the novels, 無傷時代 [The Age of No Hurt] (2005) and 西北雨 [Northwest Rain] (2010), for which he won the Taiwan Literature Prize. He lectures in the Department of Theatre Arts of the Taipei National University of the Arts. His participation was made possible by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.
2013 Resident
fiction writer, performance artist, playwright
Patrícia PORTELA (playwright, fiction writer; Portugal) has written and coordinated nearly twenty stage performances and live art works across Europe, the Middle East, China and Brazil. Widely anthologized, she is the author of the novels Para Cima e Não Para Norte (2008) and Banquete (2012). A founder of the cultural association Prado, she teaches regularly at Forum Dança in Lisbon and, recently, in the Program for Visual Criticism and Film at the University of Antwerp. She participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2014 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Cynthia EDUL (playwright, fiction writer; Argentina). Edul’s plays Miami, Bonsai Family, The Tour, and A dónde van los corazones rotos have all been produced for the stage; her novel La sucesión [The Succession] appeared in 2012. Edul is the founder and artistic director of the International Platform of Performing Arts Panorama Sur, and the president of Asociación para el Teatro Latinoamericano; she teaches literature at the Universidad de San Andrés. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2014 Resident
fiction writer, playwright, translator
Auguste CORTEAU (fiction writer, playwright, translator; Greece) is the author of fourteen novels, among them [Shameless Suicides] (2005), [The Obliteration of Nikos] (2008), [Sixteen] (2010), and [The Book of Katherine] (2013), and the short story collection [The Man Who Ate Too Much] (2012). He also won the 2004 Greek National Book Award for Children’s Literature and the IBBY Prize for Best Children’s Novel. Corteau has translated over 30 titles, including the work of Apollinaire, Faulkner, Salinger, Proulx, Updike and Banville. He writes primarily in English, teaches creative writing, and is a self-taught pianist. He participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
2014 Resident
fiction writer, filmmaker, non-fiction writer, playwright
Bernice CHAULY (poet, nonfiction and fiction writer, playwright, filmmaker; Malaysia) is the author of the poetry collections going there and coming back (1997), The Book of Sins (2008), and Onkalo (2013), the short-fiction book Lost in KL (2008) and the memoir Growing Up With Ghosts (2011), winner of the 2012 Reader's Choice Awards for non-fiction. Her award-winning films have screened at international film festivals. Chauly is a co-founder of Rhino Press and of Malaysia’s longest-running literary platform Readings, and the curator of the George Town Literary Festival; she teaches creative writing at Taylor’s University. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
2014 Resident
fiction writer, playwright
Boaz GAON (playwright, fiction writer; Israel) has had six plays produced for the stage, Danziger, Boged, Argentina, The Return to Haifa, Prime Time, and Dress Rehearsal. He is also the author of the novel [Gymax’s Yellow Bus] (1995), and of the TV series [The Prosecutor] and [Prisoner Milo]. Gaon teaches dramatic writing at Minshar College of Arts, oversees drama developments for HSCC TV, and chairs the Gaon Center for the Study of Ladino Culture at Ben Gurion University. He has long been involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace organizations and initiatives. He participates courtesy of the United States-Israel Education Foundation.
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