FROM AUGUST 30 TO SEPTEMBER 26, 2022
Ervina Halili (Kosovo) poetry
Ervina Halili (b. 1986) is a surrealist poet from Kosovo. A child of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, she wrote her first poem, “Crowd 97,” at age eleven amid political upheaval and mass protests in which students and professors called for the restoration of Albanian-language education under an increasingly repressive regime. Her third book Amuletë (Amulet, 2015)—following Vinidra (2004) and Trëndafili i heshtjes (Rose of Silence, 2008)—was awarded the country’s prestigious Ali Podrimja Literary Prize for best work of poetry in 2015. Ervina is the founder of a virtual archive/museum that features journalists’ contributions to the influential Kosovo Albanian newspaper Rilindja (1945-1991). She has been a writer-in-residence at several institutions across Europe, most recently at Landi&Gyr, Switzerland, and Q21/MuseumsQuartier in Vienna. Her book, Gjumi i Oktapodit (Octopus’ Slumber, 2016), was translated into German in a bilingual edition and her most recent book "Not my eyes" a Sufi philosophy poetry book, was published in 2022 in Tirana. She is the laureate of the Democracy Award for 2021 by Kosovar Civil Society Foundation, for conserving and saving the archive of one of the biggest social enterprise in Yugoslavia.
This residency is supported by Artlink SudKulturFonds and S. Fischer Stiftung
Qiufan Chen (China) fiction
Pro Helvetia Shangai Fellowship
Chen Qiufan, also known as Stanley Chan, is a Chinese science fiction writer, columnist, and scriptwriter. His first novel was “The Waste Tide”, which "combines realism with allegory to present the hybridity of humans and machines". Chen Qiufan's short fiction works have won three Galaxy Awards for Chinese Science Fiction, twelve Nebula Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy in Chinese. "The Fish of Lijiang" received the Best Short Form Award for the 2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards. His works have been translated into many languages.
This residency is supported by Pro Helvetia Shanghai
Cecilia Knapp (UK) fiction, poetry
Cecilia Knapp is a poet, novelist and playwright. She was the Young People’s Laureate for London, 2020-2021. Poems have appeared in Magma, The White Review, Ambit and Bath Magg. She curated the poetry anthology Everything is going to be Alright published by Trapeze in June 2021. She was shortlisted for the 2020 Rebecca Swift Women’s Prize and the Outspoken poetry prize. Her debut novel Little Boxes is forthcoming with The Borough Press and her debut poetry collection Peach Pig is forthcoming from Corsair.
This residency is supported by the Foundation Jan Michalski
Elena Kostuychenko (Russie) Report, non-fiction
Elena Kostuychenko is a Russian journalist, author and gay-rights activist. She is an investigative reporter for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She won the 2013 Fritt Ord (Free Word) Prize in Norway. She was a speaker at the 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum and she was awarded with the Distinguished Writing Award by the European Press Prize. She recently covered the war in Ukraine
This residency is supported by ProtectDefender, Fondation Jan Michalski and Pro Helvetia
Franziska Zwerg (Germany) Translator
Franziska Zwerg, born in 1969 in Berlin, studied in Berlin and Moscow. She currently lives in Potsdam, Germany, as a literary translator. She has worked in theatre and documentary film as well as in German-Russian cultural exchange and has translated works by Sergei Lebedev, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Dina Rubina, Shamshad Abdullaev, Halina Poświatowska and others.
This residency is supported by S. Fischer Stiftung
