International Writing Program

Join us for the World Poetry Day event today!
Location: Deadwood, Iowa City, 6pm.

Stolen Freedoms: Creative Expression, Historic Resistance, and the Myanmar Coup

The military regime in Myanmar continues its crackdown on creative artists, begun in February of last year.

More than a year has now passed since the arrest and detention of poet and IWP ’15 alum Maung Yu Py/Mg Yu Py/Mg Yu Pie, on politically-motivated charges; and last month, two more prominent authors, detained since the day of the coup, were given multi-year jail sentences.

If you want to learn more, a valuable place to start is a study (https://bit.ly/3tUJohc) released in December 2021 by PEN America, which frames this most recent retaliation by the military within the country’s “long history of creative expression and protest.”

https://mailchi.mp/uiowa/iwp31021
https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/insein-prison-court-hands-sentences-to-writers-detained-on-day-of-coup

Stolen Freedoms: Creative Expression, Historic Resistance, and the Myanmar Coup This report explores the creative response to the February 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar and the military’s retaliatory crackdown.

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber is a fiction writer from Kenya. Her debut novel The House of Rust was selected by the Graywolf Press Africa Prize and published in 2021. Lacking access to trustworthy written resources necessitated she become an observational writer. But imagination neither began, nor ended there. Her love of lyrical story, cunning rituals, sly manners, and the invention and melodrama of monsters, could only have been nurtured in the majlises of the true masters; her most beloved and wily womenfolk. Her work has appeared in A Long House, Lolwe and Down River Road among others. She lives in Mombasa, Kenya.
She will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to the Paul and Hualing Nieh Engle Fund.
Please join us in welcoming her!

Yasser Abdel Hafez () is a novelist and literary editor, currently managing editor of Akhbar al-Adab literary newspaper. His novel On the Occasion of Life was longlisted for The Arabic Booker Prize, and The Book of Safety won the Sawiris Award, with its English translation (Hoopoe Fiction) receiving the Saif Ghobash Banipal Translation Prize.
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @CultureAtState @ECAatState @usembassycairo.
Please join us in welcoming him!

Luíza FAZIO ( @luiza.fazio) authored @Sintonia (Netflix, 2019), the most-watched Brazilian TV series of 2019, about the bittersweet lives of teenagers in the favelas. Luíza gives voice to female, LGBTQIA+, and latinx experiences through TV shows she wrote, Samantha! (Netflix, 2018) and Criminal (Amazon Prime, TBA), and her film script adaptation of A Princesa e a Costureira [The Princess and the Seamstress].
Fazio will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Exchange Programs at U.S. State Department @Embaixada EUA Brasil / US Embassy Brazil

Please join us in welcoming her!

@poetcouture
Raghavendra MADHU () advocates for human and environmental rights through poetry; his poem , in response to a survey classifying artists as "non-essential," has taken off via online campaigns (http://bit.ly/IndianExpressArtistes). His poems have been set to classical music and contemporary dance, collaborating with global artists for multidisciplinary poetry experiences. He founded @Poetry Couture, creating free spaces for poetry in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Guwahati, and beyond. https://madhuraghavendra.blogspot.com @redriverpress
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Exchange Programs at U.S. State Department U.S. Embassy India @India.usembassy

Please join us in welcoming him!

Walid Hajar Rachedi has published his debut novel Qu’est-ce que j’irais faire au paradis [What would I do in Paradise] early 2022. Passionate about stories cutting across cultural and linguistic barriers and new formats, he is the co-founder and managing editor of the bilingual digital magazine Frictions. Epidemiques [Epidemics], a fiction podcast he produced was shortlisted in the 2020 Paris Podcast Festival. In 2012, he launched an innovative transmedia campaign around his novel fugues [Runaway]. He is the recipient of the 2007 Grandes Ecoles Literary prize for his collection of short stories Chaises Musicales.  
 
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to the American Embassy of Paris 
Please join us in welcoming him! 
 

Sara Jaramillo Klinkert ( @sara.klinkert) authored the autobiographical novel Cómo maté a mi padre [How I Killed My Father] (@angostaeditores @lumenedit), was a finalist for the Colombia National Book Award, and her second novel is forthcoming. She has also been a journalist for Colombia's primary television network. Klinkert owns a spice shop called ábrete sésamo (open sesame @abretesesamo) and a cat called Kafka. https://medium.com/@sarajaramilloklinkert
She will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @usdos.colombia
Please join us in welcoming her!

TJ Benson ( @tj.benson.1481) is a writer and visual artist whose work explores the body in the context of memory, migration, utopia, and the unconscious self. His short story collection We Won’t Fade into Darkness was shortlisted for the Saraba Manuscript Prize. He lives in an apartment full of plants and is in danger of becoming a cat person.
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @usembassynigeria. Please join us in welcoming him!

Abdelaziz ERRACHIDI @aziz.rachdi () is a professor of Arabic literature at Ibn Tofaïl University in Kenitra and director of the publishing house AlKassaba. A recipient of many awards, he regularly attends international writing residencies, and his works are translated widely. He has also been the director of the International Festival of Popular Arts since 2013.  
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Exchange Programs at U.S. State Department @USEmbassyMorocco 
 
Please join us in welcoming him!

Jidanun LUEANGPIANSAMUT ( ) has published more than 20 novels, largely in the sci-fi and romance genres. The youngest-ever winner, in 2017, of the Southeast Asian Writers Award, she specializes in dystopian and LGBT themes, and YA literature. Her focus is not only in dystopia or sci-fi novel. She also writes romantic novels for teen readers. Most of it is about love between LGBT. She has more than 20 books published in Thailand. She will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State @statedept.  
Please join us in welcoming her!  

Angel Igov ( @igovangel) teaches English Literature and Translation at Sofia University. His novel The Meek, examining social upheaval at the end of WWII, was shortlisted for 7 national literary awards, winning the Hristo G. Danov Award. He has translated authors such as Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, Paul Auster, Colson Whitehead, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, and T. S. Eliot.
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Exchange Programs at U.S. State Department @USEmbassySofia

Please join us in welcoming him!

@Angel Igov ( @igovangel) teaches English Literature and Translation at Sofia University. His novel The Meek, examining social upheaval at the end of WWII, was shortlisted for 7 national literary awards, winning the Hristo G. Danov Award. He has translated authors such as Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, Paul Auster, Colson Whitehead, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, and T. S. Eliot.
He will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Exchange Programs at U.S. State Department @USEmbassySofia

Please join us in welcoming him!

Felix K. Nesi ( @felixnesi) is an activist and writer inspired by history, heritage, and traditional culture. He established an independent bookstore, Fanu Books, in Kupang. In 2019 he researched Timorese slavery in the Netherlands, supported by the Indonesian National Book Committee (komitebukuid).
Nesi will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @exchangeourworld @usainhkmacau
Please join us in welcoming him!

@usembassyjkt

Pamela Rahn Sánchez ( @pamelarahnsanchez) aligns herself with the outcasts. Interested in the human condition and its bonds, the absurd, love, sexuality, old age, and alienation, she likes to work on poetry that defies morals and genres, with a tendency towards frank social critique. Her collection Breves poemas para entender la ausencia [Brief poems to understand absence] won the Gloria Fuertes International Young Poetry Award.
She will participate in the next International Writing Program Residency thanks to @Embajada Virtual de los EE.UU., Venezuela.
Please join us in welcoming her!