Writers in residence 2019
A few words about the writers in residence at the Jan Michalski Foundation in 2019…
STARTING IN FEBRUARY
Jocelyne DESVERCHÈRE, France
(in residence from February 6 to March 6)
Jocelyne Desverchère lives in Paris. As an actress, she has worked in cinema with, among others, Olivier Assayas, Brigitte Sy, Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu, Olivier Peyon, Valérie Mréjen, Laurent Larivière, Yann Le Quellec, for television with Denys Granier-Deferre, Laurence Ferreira-Barbosa, Siegrid Alnoy, and in theatre with Redjep Mitrovitsa, Carlo Brandt and Anne-Marie Lazarini. She directed two short films, Je suis une amoureuse and Un petit d’homme. She is the author of two novels published by P.O.L, Première à éclairer la nuit (2016) and Simon (2018).
Sylvain MAESTRAGGI, France
(in residence from February 6 to March 11)
Born in 1974, Sylvain Maestraggi studied philosophy and directed Histoires nées de la solitude (2009), a film inspired by texts by Walter Benjamin. He also published two books of photographs: Marseille, fragments d’une ville (2013) and Waldersbach (2014). In 2016, he co-wrote with Christine Breton Mais de quoi ont-ils eu si peur? for which he translated texts by Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch and Siegfried Kracauer. He is also a member of the hiking group “Le Voyage métropolitain”.
Elisabeth MONTEIRO RODRIGUES, France
(in residence from February 6 to March 11)
Born in 1973, Elisabeth Monteiro Rodrigues lives and works in Paris. After completing her studies in the History of the Ancient Near East, she turned to the book trade. She worked for the Portuguese and Brazilian bookstore Michel Chandeigne from 2000 to 2015. She is a literary translator of Portuguese-speaking authors such as Teolinda Gersão, João Ricardo Pedro, Valério Romão, Manuel Rui or Noémia de Sousa. Since 2005, she has also been translating the works of Mozambique author Mia Couto. She won the Grand Prix de traduction de la ville d’Arles 2018 for the book by Valério Romão, Da Família / De la famille (Chandeigne publishing).
Fatin ABBAS, United States / Sudan
(in residence from February 6 to March 13)
Fatin Abbas was born in Sudan and grew up in the United States. Her first novel, The Interventionists, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton. Her short fiction has appeared in Freeman’s: The Best New Writing on Arrival, The Warwick Review, and Friction, and her journalism and essays have appeared in Die Zeit, Le Monde diplomatique, and The Nation. Her awards include a Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship, a Bernard Cohen Short Story Prize, and an Arc Artist Residency, among others.
Sacha FILIPENKO, Belarus
(in residence from February 6 to April 3)
Sasha Filipenko, born in 1984, is a Belorussian author currently living in St Petersburg and writing in Russian. Author of four novels: Former Son, Conceptions, Harassment, and Red Cross. Winner of the Russian Prize (2014), the Znamya magazine Prize (2014), and the SNOB Prize, short-listed for the top literary prizes such as the Big Book and the Booker. Red Cross was recently published in French.
Laurent CAUWET, France
(in residence from February 6 to April 24)
As an editor, Laurent Cauwet founded in 1994 the publishing company Al Dante, where he has kept his role as editorial manager. An independent entity until 2018, Al Dante has since become a collection within Les presses du réel. Its catalogue includes contemporary poetry and writing as well as reflexive texts on esthetics and politics. He is the author of La domestication de l’art (La fabrique, 2017) and Les 100 mots des Arts déco (PUF, 2017).
Rana DASGUPTA, United Kingdom
(in residence from February 13 to April 24)
Born in Canterbury in 1971, Rana Dasgupta studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His first novel, Tokyo Cancelled, appeared in 2005, published by Grove/Atlantic. Solo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009) won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His non-fiction account Capital: The Eruption of Dehli (Penguin, 2014) won the Ryszard Kapuscinski Award and the Prix Emile Guimet. He is Distinguished Visiting Lecturer and Writer-in-Residence in the English Department at Brown University, and the Literary Director of India’s most prestigious literary award: the JCB Prize for Literature.
http://www.ranadasgupta.com/default.asp
STARTING IN MARCH
Kirsten NORRIE, United-Kingdom
(in residence from March 13 to April 10)
With three degrees from Oxford University, including an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)-funded DPhil in Scottish Performance and Poetry, Dr. Kirsten Norrie is the author of three poetry publications – The Last Wolf of Scotland (Red Hen, 2013), The Nine of Diamonds: Surroial Mordantless (Bloodaxe, 2016) and The Gaelic Garden of the Dead (Bloodaxe, 2019) – and a non-fiction collection of essays: Scottish Lost Boys (MIT/Strange Attractor Press, 2019). Her work has appeared on the BBC, she has performed internationally and received three Creative Scotland Literature Awards.
https://www.kirstennorrie.com – http://www.macgillivray.org.uk/
Maria MUSHTRIEVA, Russia
(in residence from March 13 to April 24)
Born in Kysyl-Syr, Yakutia, in Russia, Maria Mushtrieva is based in Berlin since 2006. She has a background as an editor, researcher, writer and performer. Her creative work, which follows on from these foundations, centers on text and explores the tension between oral and written texts, poetry and reportage, draft and master copy. She currently works as a translator in the cultural and literary fields. Translation is, therefore, an essential part of her practice in both the academic and creative fields.
Dmitri BORTNIKOV, Russia
(in residence from March 13 to April 24)
Born in Samara in USSR in 1968, Dmitri Bortnikov worked as a chef, a nurse in a maternity ward, a dance teacher and a legionnaire before turning to writing. Le syndrome de Fritz was awarded the Russian Booker Prize in 2002 and the national best-seller award. His second novel, Svinobourg (Le Seuil, 2005), was critically acclaimed. His latest work is Face au Styx (Rivages, 2017). Dmitri Bortnikov now lives in Paris.
Elisabeth MONTEIRO RODRIGUES, France
(in residence from March 29 to April 24)
Born in 1973, Elisabeth Monteiro Rodrigues lives and works in Paris. After completing her studies in the History of the Ancient Near East, she turned to the book trade. She worked for the Portuguese and Brazilian bookstore Michel Chandeigne from 2000 to 2015. She is a literary translator of Portuguese-speaking authors such as Teolinda Gersão, João Ricardo Pedro, Valério Romão, Manuel Rui or Noémia de Sousa. Since 2005, she has also been translating the works of Mozambique author Mia Couto. She won the Grand Prix de traduction de la ville d’Arles 2018 for the book by Valério Romão, Da Família / De la famille (Chandeigne publishing).
STARTING IN APRIL
Eva Maria LEUENBERGER, Switzerland
(in residence from April 10 to May 7)
Eva Maria Leuenberger, born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1991, is the author of the poetry collection dekarnation, to be published by Literaturverlag Droschl in Autumn 2019. Her poems appear in manuskripte, Literarischer Monat, Opera Nuovo, and elsewhere. The recipient of the “Weiterschreiben” Grant by the City of Bern, as well as a finalist at the 22nd and 25th open mike competition in Berlin. She studied at the Swiss Literary Institute in Biel and the University of Bern, and currently lives in Biel.
Camille DE TOLEDO, France
(in residence from April 17 to June 5)
Camille de Toledo was born in 1976. He studied literature, law and history at the Institut d’études politiques of Paris, the London School of Economics, and then the Tisch School of New York. In 2004, he obtained a grant from the Villa Médicis in Rome. He is the author of five novels, four essays and one poetry book with publishers such as Gallimard, Le Seuil and Verdier. His last novel, Herzl : une histoire européenne, was published in 2018 by Denoël.
STARTING IN MAY
Gretchen HENDERSON, United States
(in residence from May 1 to 23)
Gretchen Henderson is the Tanner Fellow in Environmental Humanities and Writing at the University of Utah. Her latest book, Ugliness: A Cultural History (Reaktion Books of London/University of Chicago Press 2015), is being translated for Turkish, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish editions. She has taught widely, most recently at Georgetown University, University of Utah, MIT., with recent fellowships at Harvard, MIT., and Brown University.
Cal FLYN, United Kingdom
(in residence from May 1 to 29)
Cal Flyn is an award-winning author and journalist from the Highlands of Scotland. She worked as an investigative reporter for The Sunday Times and the Telegraph before turning to literary non-fiction. Her first book, Thicker than Water, was published in 2016 by HarperCollins, and dealt with questions of colonialism and intergenerational guilt. She now writes mainly on nature and the outdoors and is currently working on a second book, on the ecology of abandoned places, expected in 2020.
Pierre DUCROZET, France
(in residence from May 1 to June 7)
Born in 1982, Pierre Ducrozet is the author of four novels, three of which were published by Grasset: Requiem pour Lola rouge (2010, Prix de la Vocation 2011), La vie qu’on voulait (2013) and the highly acclaimed Eroica (2015) about the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. L’invention des corps, published in 2017 by Actes Sud, was awarded the Prix de Flore. He also translates from Spanish and English and teaches creative writing at the Ecole supérieure des Arts visuels in Brussels.
Oliver ROHE, France
(in residence from May 1 to June 26)
Born in Beirut in 1972, Oliver Rohe is the author of three novels, Défaut d’origine (Allia, 2003), Terrain vague (Allia, 2005), Un peuple en petit (Gallimard, 2009), one biographical fiction on Mikhaïl Kalachnikov, Ma dernière création est un piège à taupes (Inculte, 2012) and two essays, Une année en France, with Frédéric Bégaudeau and Arno Bertina (Gallimard, 2005), and A fendre le cœur le plus dur, with Jérôme Ferrari (Inculte/Dernière marge, 2015). He is one of the founding members of Inculte collective. He also writes radio plays for France Culture and works with several magazines and journals.
Woosung SOHN, South Korea
(in residence from May 1 to July 17)
Born in 1987 in South Korea, Woosung Sohn is an artist, an editor and a poet. He studied plastic arts in Seoul and graduated from the Ecole nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy. During his years in France, he went back to writing and pursued a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Paris 8. He questions language, the relationship between languages and the relationship between languages and images. He is also an editor and the co-founder of the independent photography publishing company, ces éditions.
Raluca ANTONESCU, Switzerland / Romania
(in residence from May 15 to June 12)
Born in Bucharest in 1976, Raluca Antonescu arrived in Switzerland when she was four years old. She spent most of her childhood in a Swiss German village before settling in Geneva. After studying at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs and the Ecole des beaux-arts in Geneva, she worked in the field of video and documentary filmmaking before teaching plastic arts. She wrote her first novel, L’inondation, in 2014 (Editions la Baconnière), followed by Sol, published in 2017.
STARTING IN JUNE
André NAFFIS-SAHELY, Italy
(in residence from June 5 to July 10)
André Naffis-Sahely is from Abu Dhabi, but was born in Venice to an Iranian father and an Italian mother. His translations include over twenty titles of fiction, poetry and nonfiction from French and Italian, featuring works by Honoré de Balzac, Emile Zola, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Abdellatif Laâbi and Alessandro Spina. Several have been featured as “books of the year” in The Guardian, Financial Times and NPR. His debut collection of poetry is The Promised Land (Penguin UK, 2017).
Elisa WOUK ALMINO, United States/Brazil
(in residence from June 5 to July 10)
Elisa Wouk Almino is a writer, editor, and translator based in Los Angeles. Currently, she is the senior editor at the arts magazine Hyperallergic and an editor for Harlequin Creature’s translation platform. She is also the editor of an artist monograph for Rizzoli, forthcoming in 2019. In 2017, she published her translations of the Brazilian poet Ana Martins Marques with Scrambler Books. She has taught an Introduction to Translation course with the literary magazine Catapult in 2018.
http://www.elisawoukalmino.com
Katja PETROWSKAJA, Ukraine
(in residence from June 7 to July 10)
Born in Kiev, based in Berlin, Katja Petrowskaja studied Russian Philology at the University of Tartu, Estonia. She holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow. She published at newspapers as NZZ and SZ. Since 2011 she is a columnist with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Maybe Esther (2014) is her first book. A winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize and several other literature awards, it has been translated into twenty languages.
Annelyse GELMAN, United States
(in residence from June 12 to August 28)
Annelyse Gelman’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, BOMB Magazine, the PEN Poetry Series, and elsewhere, and she is the author of the poetry collection Everyone I Love Is a Stranger to Someone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014). She was the inaugural poet-in-residence at UCSD (the University of California, San Diego)’s Brain Observatory and a 2016-17 Fulbright grantee in Berlin for her work at the intersection of poetry, music, and film. She currently holds a fellowship at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas.
Shirin BARGHNAVARD, Iran
(in residence from June 19 to July 31)
Shirin Barghnavard is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Tehran, Iran. Since 2000 she has been actively working as a writer, director, producer and editor of many award-winning short and feature length fiction and documentary films such as Poets of Life, Scenes from a Divorce and Profession: Documentarist. In her documentary films, Shirin Barghnavard combines general social issues with specific research on the role of women in the society.
STARTING IN JULY
In partnership
Sandra DE VIVIES, France
(in residence from July 3 to 31)
Sandra de Vivies currently lives in Brussels and works as a journalist and consultant. She is currently working on her first novel, as part of her Master’s degree in Lettres RED ‘écopoétique et création’ at the University of Aix-Marseille.
Élise FOUIN, France
(in residence from July 3 to 31)
Born in 1979 in Vesoul, Élise Fouin now lives in Paris where she works as a designer and a teacher. Trained at the École Boulle (in jewelry and furniture design), she tames material first and foremost with her hands. Continuously taking heed of the way the material behaves, she bets on the unexpected. The projects she works on all combine natural elements, lightness and mischief, thus allowing the unfolding of an array of poetical strings where frailty meets robustness.
In partnership
Fabienne RADI, Switzerland
(in residence from July 17 to 31)
Fabienne Radi was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1960. She studied geography and geology, library and information science, and then the arts, which finally brought her to writing. She writes essays on art, micro-narratives, lists, poems and a novel: C’est quelque chose (autre part, 2017). She also produces artist’s editions (books, posters). She co-managed the magazine Tissu from 2004 to 2010. She teaches part-time at HEAD (Haute École d’art et de design) in Geneva.
Cyrille MARTINEZ, France
(in residence from July 17 to 31)
Cyrille Martinez, born in 1972 in Avignon, France, is the author of seven books, including Le poète insupportable (Questions théoriques, 2017) and La bibliothèque noire (Buchet-Chastel, “Qui Vive”, 2018). Both Deux jeunes artistes au chômage / The Sleepworker (2011, French Voices Grant 2013) and Musique rapide et lente (2014) were adapted for the stage.
Simona MAMBRINI, Italy
(in residence from July 22 to August 28)
Simona Mambrini is a translator, a translation studies specialist and a lexicographer. She studied literature before moving on to literary translation. She has been working in the publishing industry for twenty years and has close to a hundred translations from French and English into Italian to her credit. She has a predilection for Georges Simenon but also translates a lot of children’s and youth literature. She has been collaborating with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair since 2004.
STARTING IN AUGUST
Ramiro S. OSÓRIO, Portugal
(in residence from August 7 to 21)
Born in 1939 in Lisbon, Ramiro S. Osório studied with Roland Barthes at Collège de France. He worked as an architect in Paris and as a literature “anti”-professor in Rio de Janeiro. He has published fifteen books in various genres: fairytales, poetry, theatre plays and children’s and youth literature. He received two awards from the Portuguese Authors Society and from the Ministry of Culture in Portugal. He was also chosen by the Ministry of Education in Brazil to take part in the National School Library Program. The National Library of Portugal has been archiving his manuscripts – thirty of which have not been published.
Marie NIMIER, France
(in residence from August 7 to September 4)
Marie Nimier was born in 1957. She is the author of thirteen novels published by Gallimard, including La reine du silence (Prix Médicis 2004), which all have been widely translated (United-States, China, Egypt, Germany, etc.). While novels occupy most of her time, she has also written a number of lyrics for the likes of Juliette Gréco, Art Mengo, Maurane, Eddy Mitchell or Enzo Enzo, as well as children’s literature and theatre plays or other hybrid pieces, in particular with and for dancers. Her latest novel Les confidences was published by Gallimard in March 2019.
https://www.marienimier.com/index.php
Elisabeth JAQUETTE, United States
(in residence from August 7 to September 11)
Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from the Arabic and Executive Director of the American Literary Translators Association. Her work has been shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize, longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award, and supported by PEN/Heim and English PEN Translates Awards. She is also an instructor of translation. She holds an MA from Columbia University, a BA from Swarthmore College, and was a CASA Fellow at the American University in Cairo.
In partnership
Krzysztof SZEKALSKI, Poland
(in residence from August 7 to September 11)
Krzysztof Szekalski is a playwright, dramaturg, poet and actor. After completing his acting education at the Academy for Theatre Arts in Krakow, he started his career in theatre as a performer working a.o. with Krystian Lupa. Later he began writing and made it his main artistic focus. He is an author of theatre pieces and radio plays staged in theatres across Poland. His main interest is in new documentary forms in writing for theatre. He also writes poetry.
Aleksandra JAKUBCZAK, Poland
(in residence from August 7 to September 11)
Aleksandra Jakubczak is a theatre maker based in Warsaw. She graduated from theatre directing at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and has been active professionally for four years now, working on theatre pieces, installations and radio plays in Poland and abroad. In her practice, she explores the relations between realities and fictions, the dynamic and economy of gift and meeting as creative tools and social criticism within performing arts.
Christopher HOWE, United Kingdom
(in residence from August 28 to September 25)
Christopher Howe is a professional conservationist, and has worked for wildlife organizations in the UK, Indonesia, New Zealand and Asia since 1992. He is currently based in Bangkok on a two-year assignment with UICN, a global conservation organization headquartered in Gland (Switzerland), writing proposals and supervising conservation projects across Asia. In 2011 he took study leave and graduated with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at the Victoria University of Wellington.
STARTING IN SEPTEMBER
Oliver ROHE, France
(in residence from September 4 to October 2)
Born in Beirut in 1972, Oliver Rohe is the author of three novels, Défaut d’origine (Allia, 2003), Terrain vague (Allia, 2005), Un peuple en petit (Gallimard, 2009), one biographical fiction on Mikhaïl Kalachnikov, Ma dernière création est un piège à taupes (Inculte, 2012) and two essays, Une année en France, with Frédéric Bégaudeau and Arno Bertina (Gallimard, 2005), and A fendre le cœur le plus dur, with Jérôme Ferrari (Inculte/Dernière marge, 2015). He is one of the founding members of Inculte collective. He also writes radio plays for France Culture and works with several magazines and journals.
Margot CARLIER, France
(in residence from September 4 to October 9)
A specialist in Polish literature, literary advisor and teacher, Margot Carlier is also a translator. She has a passion for literary reporting and was chief editor of La vie est un reportage, and La mer dans une goutte d’eau (Noir sur Blanc, 2006 and 2016). With around 40 translations to her credit, she has worked for several publishing companies and has translated works by Hanna Krall, Wieslaw Mysliwski, Andrzej Stasiuk and Olga Tokarczuk.
Frank SMITH, France
(in residence from September 11 to December 18)
A “linguistic craftsman”, Frank Smith is a writer, a poet, a video artist and filmmaker living between Paris and Los Angeles. He is represented by the Analix Forever Gallery in Geneva. Frank Smith is also the creator of the Bureau d’investigations poétiques, from which he explores the contemporary connections and disconnections between poetry, politics and image, through books, films, installations, exhibitions and performances. He has published a dozen books so far, including Guantanamo (Les Figues Press, 2014), which was judged the best poetry book of 2014 by the US-based Huffington Post.
Jean HEGLAND, United States
(in residence from September 18 to November 20)
Jean Hegland was born in 1956 and raised in Pullman, Washington. She and her husband live now in the forests of northern California, where her pastimes include beekeeping. She is the author of the novels Into the Forest (Bantam Books, 1997), Windfalls (Atria, 2004) and Still Time (Arcade, 2015); as well as a book of nonfiction, The life within: celebration of a pregnancy (Humana, 1991). Into the Forest has been translated into a dozen languages, adapted as a film and a graphic novel.
Camille DE TOLEDO, France
(in residence from September 27 to October 30)
Camille de Toledo was born in 1976. He studied literature, law and history at the Institut d’études politiques of Paris, the London School of Economics, and then the Tisch School of New York. In 2004, he obtained a grant from the Villa Médicis in Rome. He is the author of five novels, four essays and one poetry book with publishers such as Gallimard, Le Seuil and Verdier. His last novel, Herzl : une histoire européenne, was published in 2018 by Denoël.
STARTING IN OCTOBER
Isaac YUEN, Canada
(in residence from October 2 to 30)
A first-generation Chinese-Canadian, Isaac Yuen has published his fiction and creative nonfiction in Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment, Zoomorphic, River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, Tin House Flash Fridays, Orion, and others. He is the creator of Ekostories, an essay blog that connects narrative to themes of nature, culture, and self. He lives in Vancouver, Canada, on unceded Coast Salish territory, and is currently working on his first short story collection.
Michaela VIESER, Germany
(in residence from October 9 to December 16)
Michaela Vieser is a storyteller and author, publishing books of fiction and nonfiction and radio features. A “topic explorer”, she applies a method of extended research, combining information from the sensual as well as the scientific world. As a SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) graduate she studied Japanese Language, Culture and Arts, and she also lived for a year in a Japanese Buddhist monastery, to learn the Way of Calligraphy, Sword-fighting, and Tea.
Adrien GYGAX, Switzerland
(in residence from October 16 to December 18)
Born in Lausanne in 1989, Adrien Gygax grew up in Mont-la-Ville at the foot of the Jura and studied sociology. Since the release of his first novel, Aux noces de nos petites vertus, published in 2017 by Cherche-Midi, he has devoted himself to writing. His next work Se réjouir de la fin, is to be published by Grasset.
Boris TILQUIN, Belgium
(in residence from October 23 to December 18)
Boris Tilquin is a Belgian author and screenwriter born in 1989. He decided to dedicate himself to writing after completing his undergraduate degree in philosophy and went on to producing several short films for the cinema. He has won several awards at international film festivals and received a number of grants for creative work. Following his first novel, Monstres ordinaires, Boris Tilquin is now working on the manuscript of his second novel, Des bâtards.
STARTING IN NOVEMBER
Ryan IRELAND, United States
(in residence from November 6 to December 18)
Ryan Ireland, PhD, is the author of two novels published by Oneworld, Beyond the Horizon and Ghosts of the Desert. He has also published scholarly, popular, and creative nonfiction in Public Libraries Quarterly, Voices of Youth Advocates, and Ripcord. In 2018 he was a finalist for the VanderMey Nonfiction Prize. Currently he sits on the board of the Antioch Writers’ Workshop and co-chairs a nonprofit, Third Story Literacy Project, with his wife, Amber.
Photos: Jocelyne Desverchère © Hélène Bamberger | Sylvain Maestraggi © Muriel Bucher | Raluca Antonescu © Caroline Fernandez | Shirin Barghnavard © Frederique Le Brun | Cyrille Martinez © Pauline Abascal | Jean Hegland © Tessa Padilla Fisher
Photos © D.R
