(born in Giza, 1970) is editor and translator at the teletext service of Egyptian television and editor of the Morning News Bulletin, English News Service, of Radio Cairo. He is also founder and editor of the literary magazine Al-Jarad. Mr. Metwalli's publications prove not only his talent but his fresh and challenging voice; in 1992 he received the "Yusuf al-Khal" prize for the best first poetry collection for Once Up 'on a Time, and the 1991 Rimbaud Prize for young poets given by Ibda magazine. His work is said to represent a major shift in contemporary literary values; he holds poetry readings throughout Egypt. He is also active in a local theater group, "Shrapnel," and collaborated with the American cultural affairs office at the 1996 Cairo International Experimental Theater Festival. Once Upon a Time was first published in Arabic in the United Kingdom in 1992; his poetry has also appeared in Lebanese publications and in English translation. He earned the BA in English from Cairo University in 1992 and took courses at the Egyptian Film Institute. The US Information Agency is providing his grant to the program.
(born 1960, Lodz) is widely published as a translator from Polish and French into English. Some of her numerous translations include Oni by Teresa Toranska (Collins-Harvill), Poverty by Bronislaw Geremek (Blackwell), Tales from Lailonia by her father, Leszek Kolakowski (Chicago), and a book of essays by Leszek Kolakowski which is forthcoming from Penguin. Her translations have appeared in numerous magazines, both popular and academic, and she has published articles and reviews in such journals as The Salisbury Review and The Times. Ms. Kolakowska was educated in Philosophy and Classics at Yale University, Columbia University, and The University of Cambridge, and has spent the last decade working on various education projects in Eastern Europe. She is fluent in English, French, Hebrew, and Polish, and also speaks and reads German, Greek, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Her participation in the IWP is supported by the Jurzykowski Foundation.
(born 1959, Budapest) has published numerous books of poetry, among them Betupiranis (Letter Pyramid, 1984), Lathatatlan jelenlet (Invisible Presence, 1990), Az irogepelt felelem (The Typed Fear, 1992) and Csutoras Gergely ebresztese (Wake up, Gergely Csutoras!, 1991), a book of poems for children. He has also published collections of his essays, written and directed two video films, and produced recordings of acoustic poetry. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest, and has worked as a literary magazine editor, and as editor and publisher of Medium-Art, an underground literary periodical active during the communist regime. Mr. Petocz also served as leader of the Medium-Art Studio, a center for experimental art. He has won a number of prizes for his writing, including, in 1990, the Robert Graves Prize for best Hungarian poem of the year. His participation in the IWP is supported by the United States Information Agency.
(born 1960, Rio de Janeiro) is a reporter and critic for Brazil's major daily newspaper. He is also a freelance consultant and translator for a prestigious Brazilian publishing firm. He is the author of three novels, Teatro (1998), Os Bêbados e os Sonâmbulos (1996; French edition, 1998); Onse (1965), and a collection of short stories, Aberração (1993; French edition, 1997). Educated at the Universidade de Sao Paulo and the Pontifica Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Carvalho holds an M.A. in Arts and Communications, with a dissertation on German Romanticism and the New German Cinema. In addition to Portuguese and English, he speaks and writes fluent French and understands Spanish. His participation in the IWP is supported by the Vitae Foundation.
(born 1951, Tbilisi) is a freelance professional poet and writer; translator of Russian writers, among them Maiakowski and Mandelshtam; and host of a radio program in Tbilisi, "Darchi Norchi" (Stay Young). He is also a playwright at the State Rustaveli Theatre and Youth Theatre. Among his publications are Damoukidebloba (Independence) with A. Darchashvili, 1999; poems in XX Century (the Georgian literary journal), 1998; German folk ballad translations, 1997; and a selection of English sonnet translations, 1997. Mr. Kubaneishvili has been the most active and outspoken player in the changing world of Georgian poetry in the past decade. He appeared on the literary scene in 1990 with his book Reaktiuli Klubi (The Reactive Club), which is a collection of poems and radio plays. His poetry touches upon general issues of mankind, as well as describing everyday routine. Also reflected in his poetry are the tensions in the political and public life of Georgia. With the release of his book came T-shirts with logos and slogans distributed widely among young people and the general public. Mr. Kubaneishvili also translates the works of international writers and poets, and through poetry and performance uses his fluency in English, Russian, and German-as well as in Georgian-to make provocative statements about humanity and world civilization at the dawn of the new millennium. Mr. Kubaneishvili is the IWP's first representative from the Republic of Georgia. He is attending the IWP through a grant from the US Information Agency.
(born 1958, Lowicz) is Professor of English at Lodz University and Warsaw University. He is a literary critic and translator for Literatura Na Swiecie< (a literary monthly devoted to European literature) and a literary critic as well for Tygodnik Powszeckny< (a Krakow-based weekly). He speaks five languages (Polish, French, German, Russian, and English) and has translated over 20 books, including Philip Roth's Deception and Patrimony; Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story, and Seamus Heaney's essays. In addition, he has published four books of poetry in Polish and written various essays on American and British poetry and on contemporary Polish literature. Mr. Jarniewicz is currently working on a book on contemporary poetry. During his stay in the United States, he would like to meet poets and literary critics whose work is especially interesting to him: Thom Gunn (San Francisco), Paul Muldoon (Princeton), Robert Pinsky and Derek Walcott (Boston), Marjorie Perloff (Stanford), and Helen Vendler (Harvard). He would also like to interview Philip Roth. Mr. Jarniewicz has an interest in contemporary art and hopes to visit the Museum of Modern Art at the Guggenheim Museum. The US Information Agency is providing Mr. Jarniewicz's grant to the IWP.
Halina Cieplinska-Bitner (translator, poet, essayist, Poland) has translated more than 25 American and English titles, among them H.D. Thoreau's Walden, and novels by Philip Roth, Don DeLillo and John Hawkes. A winner of numerous awards and fellowships, she is also the author of critical essays on the transcendental movement, and of the play "A Cheap Alibi." After a career in the publishing industry, she is now the editor-in-chief of the Translation Department at the Polish branch of the TV station Canal +. Her 1999 residency participation was supported by the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation.
[bio rev 3/2012]
(essayist, translator, poet, Russia; born 1971, Moscow Oblast) is editor-in-chief for poetry in Novaya Yunost (New Youth) Literary Magazine and reviewer for Ex-Libris, a book review supplement in Nezavisimaya Gazeta (daily newspaper). He is the author of numerous essays and articles about literature and a translator of contemporary British and American poetry. Mr. Shulpyakov represents the best and the brightest of a new literary generation that is seeking greater cultural contact with the outside world while remaining true to its Russian literary roots. Only 28 years old, Mr. Shulpyakov has already established a strong reputation as a rising star in the Russian literary landscape. His verse has been published in the most prestigious Russian literary journals such as Novy Mir, Evezda, Strelets,Volga, and Arion. He is interested in contemporary American literature and major book reviews. He is attending the IWP through the US Information Agency.
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 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.
(b. 1972, Ashkelon) is a founding member of Ev, a literary group that seeks to introduce into Hebrew literature a new poetical language merging ancient and modern Hebrew. He received the Israeli Ministry of Education's Award in 1996 for his first collection of poems, The Monologue of Icarus (Gvanim, 1997). His second collection, That Which I Thought Shadow is the Real Body , was published in 2002 by Keter, the publishing house in which he now works as editor. His work has been translated into English, Dutch, and Italian. He has done translations of John Cage, Mallarmé, De Chirico and Blanchot, as well as contributing weekly to a leading Israeli paper on subjects such as cinema, literature, and music. In 1994 he joined the rock group Ha'atzula ("Aristocracy") as a songwriter and acoustic guitar player. They released their first album, Need , in 1996 and he has since collaborated with some of Israel's most prominent rock artists. He is participating courtesy of the US-Israel Educational Foundation.
(b. 1963, La Plata) is among Argentina's most prominent writers. His first novel, Tejiendo Agua (Knitting in Water, 1985) won the Fortbat Prize. Inglaterra. Una fábula (England. A fable, 1999), a novel about an English company of Shakespearean actors who travel to Patagonia to play in front of the same Fuegian tribes who inspired the character of Caliban, won the most important Argentinean prize, the Premio Clarin de Novela. He has also published a collection of short stories (Los que llegamos más legos, 2002), a collection of poems (Fado, 1995), a collection of interviews (Historia de un deseo, 2000), the first Argentinean anthology of fiction on homosexuality, and three books about creative writing. Writers he has translated include Flannery O'Connor, Henry James, and Guy de Maupassant. Currently, he teaches creative writing, contributes to the two most important Argentinean newspapers (Clarin and La Nación), and is writing a novel which takes place in Lisbon during WW II. His works have been published in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Brazil, and France. He is participating courtesy of the U.S. State Department.
(b. 1958, Choongju) is editor of the two most influential literary magazines in Korea: Spirit & Expression and People Loving Poetry. The first magazine deals with multiple genres of literature while the latter is dedicated solely to poetry. He also manages PoemCafe (www.poemcafe.com), a global network of poets which began in 2000 and now has more than 90 members worldwide. Mr. Jeong majored in modern Korean poetry, and received his Ph.D. at Kyeonghee University in Seoul. He has published three books of poems: The Appointment with a Stranger (1990), Sad Santa Fe (1994), and Nana Stories (1999). He also has a collection of essays titled Two Reports about Hell (1995). His next collection of poems will be out in late 2003. He is participating courtesy of the Korean Culture and Art Foundation.
(b. 1954, Buzau) (family name Prelipceanu) has coordinated a series of world literature, "Biblioteca Polirom," at Polirom Publishing House since 2001, but has been an editor for more than twenty years. After her debut in the literary journal Romania literara in 1975, Izgonirea din Paradise (Banishment from Paradise, 1979), her first book of poetry, won the Debut Prize of the Writers' Union. Since then she has published four more volumes of poetry which enjoy a wide readership both in Romania and abroad and have garnered numerous accolades. A distinguished translator, she has published selections of Alan Brownjohn's and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's poetry and edited the bilingual Romanian/Polish anthology, Strong-28 Women Poets of Romania (1999). She is currently working on an anthology of Romanian women's poetry composed between 1960-2003. Ms. Comanescu was a founding member of the Civic Alliance (an association of Romanian intellectuals set up in 1990 whose ongoing purpose has been to strengthen the civil society) and has been the Secretary of the Romanian PEN Center for thirteen years. She is participating courtesy of the U.S. State Department.
(b. 1959, Changhung) is an associate professor of English Literature at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea. He has received his Ph. D. in English from University of Iowa (1993) and written widely about contemporary American poets, especially ecopoets such as Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, and A.R. Ammons. He is vice-president of ASLE_Korea (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) and editor of Literature and Environment. He was awarded several times Korean Literature Translation Institute Grant and Daesan Foundation Award, and has translated more than six books of Korean poetry, including Heart's Agony (White Pine Press, 1998), Flowers in the Toilet Bowl (Homa & Sekey, Fall, 2003), and Trees of the World (Kegan Paul International, forthcoming). Presently he is translating with Christopher Merrill the works of Jiwoo Hwang (2000 IWP participant) and an anthology of contemporary Korean poetry. He is participating courtesy of the Freeman Foundation.
(poet, writer, critic, translator; b. 1963, USSR; lives in Russia) earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Samara State Aerospace University, where he is currently an associate professor of aircraft engine design. Although he does not consider writing to be his principal occupation, he is extremely active in the Russian literary scene. Ulanov has over 250 publications to his credit, including works of poetry, short fiction, book reviews, articles on modern Russian literature, and translation works. He is participating courtesy of the US Congress Open World Program, and will be in Iowa City 9/16 to 9/30.
is nationally recognized for his creative work. He has published two volumes of poetry, Nocturnal Trip (1996) and Thera (2002), and several translations of English literature, including Marianne Moore's poetry and Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, receiving awards and scholarships along the way. At the same time he has facilitated creative poetry workshops at both universities, and at private cultural centers. He is participating courtesy of the Department of State.
Trained in philology, fluent in Uzbek, Russian and English, and a member of the Young Poets and Translators of Uzbekistan, a poetry school at the Tashkent National University, Aazam ABIDOV is an award-winning poet whose translations into English featured the work of Usmon Nosir and Chulpon, prominent voices of the Uzbek intelligentsia. His own poetry volumes include Miracle is on the Way (2000), released in Uzbek and English, and Love in My In (2000), in Uzbek; individual poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. Mr. Abidov also co-edited the Uzbek translation of Muslim Life in America. He is participating courtesy of the Department of State.
attended the Moscow State Pedagogical University. Publishing and writing professionally for the last decade he has made a name for himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary Russian poetry. He is a winner of the Arion Prize for poetry and the Andrey Bely Prize for critical essays. Kuzmin founded the Vavilon Union of Young Poets, since 1989 the organizational hub for Moscow's experimental poetry scene. A long-time proponent of unique and radical poetic voices and an openly gay writer, Kuzmin is a somewhat controversial literary figure in Russia. Currently, he is the deputy chief editor of Column Publishing House, which features works by contemporary Russian writers. He is participating courtesy of the US Congress Open World Program.
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.
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