(poet, essayist, literary historian, Poland; born 1962, Ostrow) is assistant professor of Polish philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, and a literary critic and commentator for the most prestigious Polish cultural magazines. He also provides regular commentary over the Polish national radio and television. Mr. Sliwinski was a founder and editor-in-chief of the literary monthly Format. He has written numerous essays and monographs on Polish contemporary literature; his critical collections include the books Tadeusz Dolega Mostowicz (1994) and Counterpoint: Talks on Books (1999); in process of publication is a book co-authored by Agata Legezynska, Polish Poetry After 1968. He edited Reading Zbigniew Herbert (1995) and Boredom in Culture (1999). He has taken part in many conferences in Europe; this is his first visit to the United States. He holds the MA in Polish literature and has taken doctoral studies in sociology; he is currently interested in the sociology of literature, particularly the relationship between literature and the Internet. The U.S. Department of State is subsidizing his participation in the IWP.
(born 1952, Nasarawa) is the national president of the Association of Nigerian Authors and chairman of the Concern Foundation and Savannah Publications Ltd. He is the author of several novels, including Witness to Tears; Trail of Sacrifice ; Innocent Victims; Sunset for a Mandarin, and Golden Apples. Mr. Gimba was previously executive director of the Union Bank of Nigeria and permanent secretary in Nigeria's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. He holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Cincinnati, and has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. He is taking part in the IWP on a grant from the U.S. Department of State.
(poet, India; b. 1954) writes in Bengali, and (since his debut with the collection Christmas and a Bunch of Winter Sonnets at 23), he has written over 800 poems that have been compiled in seventeen books; his other writing includes eight novels, and a collection of essays on modern poetry in India. He has twice received the Ananda Purashkar literary award: for his 1990 poetry collection Leaves of Fire, Are You Sleeping? and his novel written in verse, Those Who Were Wet By the Rain (1998). He is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.
(poet, Vietnam; born 1963, Hanoi) writes poetry exploring the sensibility of post-1975 Vietnamese youth, and their complex attitudes toward contemporary Vietnam in transition. He has received a number of awards for his careers in poetry and in journalism. He is Editor of the Sunday literary and arts supplement of the Tien Phong newspaper, and also writes for other leading journals directed toward youth. He also works as a literary translator. A miscellany including critical work is being published early next year. He is at the IWP through support from the US Department of State.
(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.
(born 1960, Oslo) is already considered an established and well-respected figure in Norwegian literary circles. She is a freelance writer and translator of articles, children's books and cartoons. Her most recent publication is the nonfiction work Fear of God (2000); her poetry collections include An Infinite Durability (1999) and The Interval (1997). She is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.
(poet, Korea; b. 1953) is deputy professor at Kyungwon College and is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on T.S. Eliot at Korea University's Department of English Literature. Mr. Lee has written extensively on deconstruction as literary theory, and his translation of Jonathan Culler's On Deconstruction was selected as one of Korea's Best Scholarly Books of 1998. He has published two poetry collections: God's Baseball Game Ticket (1997) and On Poetry (1994). The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation and the University of Iowa are supporting his participation.
(born 1977, Vilnius) is a project manager and editor in Lithuania's largest public relations company, Viesuju Ryiu Partneriai; he is concurrently completing graduate studies in Lithuanian literature at Vilnius University. He is the author of the poetry collection Ideograms (1999); his poems have appeared in various Lithuanian, Finnish, and Russian journals. A second book of poems, Planning a Murder, is forthcoming in the autumn of 2001. The US Department of State is supporting his residency at the IWP.
(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.
(born 1958, Uhm el Fahm) is the pen name of Mahammeed Nasra. She teaches at the High School for the Arts in Naamat, and organized and ran a weekly salon for women poets and writers, serving as mentor for Arab women in Israel who wish to experiment with poetry and fiction. Most recently, she was the driving force behind an art exhibit, "Common Threads," that displayed the work of Jewish and Arab women artists side by side at the prestigious gallery of the Tel Aviv University. She has published over 40 short stories and 60 poems in various Arabic publications in Israel. The US Department of State is providing her participation in the IWP.
(b. 1972, Tiverton, Devon) is the 2001 recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award. His first book, the novella Poppy and Dingan (2000), was very well received and is published in the US by Knopf, with rights sold in 20 countries around the world. His travels-through Europe, Asia and the Pacific, the Mediterranean-also include a year in Maine as a child, when his father was an exchange professor. At eighteen he taught English as a second language for a half year in the Czech Republic. He holds the M.A. with distinction from the University of East Anglia, his country's most competitive creative writing program. The US State Department provides his participation in the program.
(born 1962, Surabaya) is the Executive Secretary of the Shimizu Corporation, and the President of the Multimedia Literature Institute. Her poems have appeared in more than 15 anthologies, such as In Solitude (1993); Resonansi Indonesia (2000); Graffiti Gratitude (2001), and in many journals in Indonesia, as well as in Brunei Darussalam and Australia. Representative of the Republic of Indonesia in the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations since 1999. Her most recent project involves participating in research on the traditional Machiya wooden houses of Kyoto, together with scholars from 4 other Asian countries. She is taking part in the IWP through the US Department of State.
(born 1960, Svanakhet) directs and edits the only monthly literary magazine in Laos, and serves as second secretary of the Lao Writer's Association, editing its newsletter. His most recent short stories, "The Life of Love," "The Love of the Luang Prabang Song," "Life and Family" and "Song of Man" have appeared in Vannasin magazine, the monthly publication of the Lao Ministry of Information and Culture; these were also published as a book. He is the IWP's first representative from Laos. The first Laotian participant in the program, he is here through the US Department of State.
(poet, Poland; born 1969, Kalisz) is editor at Empiz Publishers, Poznan. He has received several prestigious literary awards; his first poetry collection was honored as the "Best Debut" book of 1994. Mr. Sosnicki's second collection is described as "a weather-and-soul report," and he is regarded as a representative voice of his generation. His poetry and literary criticism are well anthologized; they are translated in Czech, English, and Slovenian, and have appeared in such journals as the Chicagi Review issue on New Polish Writing (vol. 46, nos. 3 and 4, 2000). He is in the IWP on a grant from the US State Department.
(poet, Indonesia; born 1965, Grobogan, Central Java) is Program Coordinator for the Utan Kayu Community in West Java; he is also a lecturer at the Jakarta Arts Institute, a literature teacher for Eksotika Karmawiggangga and editor of the Kalam Cultural Journal. His work has appeared in 2001: Secrets Need Words (ed. Harry Aveling, to be published by the Ohio University Press); the Nonsens Poetry anthology, and various poetry and short fiction anthologies in Indonesia. Last year, Mr. Srengenge was cited as one of his country's leaders in society in culture by Asiaweek magazine. The US Department of State is supporting his participation in the IWP. His name is pronounced [SEE tohk shrehn GEHN geh].
is an art curator and the editor of the Jakarta literary journal “Prosa” (Prose). Winner of the national “Sanggar Minum Kopi Bali Award” for poetry, Mr. Prasetyo has recently published two volumes of art criticism, translations of Bharati Mukherjee and Octavio Paz, and his own selected poems, entitled Mahasukka (2000). He is participating courtesy of the Open Society Institute.
is the author of On the Road Again (1986) and Dusk of Dawn (1995), both published in English; and co-author of Ndangariro (1987). Her work expresses ideas few dare voice, given the current political situation in Zimbabwe. She was once a member of the Zimbabwe Liberation Army in Mozambique, and now is the program director for Management Outreach Training Service for Rural and Urban Development. She is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
is a freelance journalist for the “Community Voice” and the “Zambian Citizen” newspapers in Lusaka. Established poet, former president of the Poetry Society of Zambia, and dedicated student of Human Rights Law, Mr. Nyirendra has been helping to advance every form of Zambian literature. He is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
has won awards for his fiction and critical work and is a two-time recipient of the Colombian National Poetry Prize. He has translated Shakespeare, writes regular columns on film for several magazines, and is soon to publish both a novel, La Sombra del Incantropo (The Werewolf’s Shadow), and a volume of poetry, Escrito en el Tiempo (Written in Time). He is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
(b. Nairobi, Kenya) is an associate professor of English at Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi. The recipient of many grants and awards, she has published nearly ten books of literary criticism, translation, and poetry. Her most recent book of poems is Folds of Silence (1998). She is currently at work on two new books. She is participating courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
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