2023 Edition

RESIDENTS IN VIL·LA JOANA

PHASE 1. From April 17 to May 8

Aleksandra Orlic (Croatia). Writer and journalist, she is the chief editor of Cosmopolitan magazine in Croatia. Author of three novels and a book of poetry, her work revolves around the relationship between memory, the city, and emotional cartographies. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her book Black Sun, a collection of poetry and short stories around the idea of lost memories, rooted in the author's father's trip to Barcelona before she was born.

Irina Markova (Ukraine). "Metaphora" Award for best international translation in 2019 for her translation of Miljenko Jergovic, she has received since then several "Best book Ukraine" Awards and has been a finalist in the BBC Best Book International for her translations. With more than ten translations for Ukrainian publishers, she specializes in Slavic languages such as Croatian, Serbian, and Bulgarian. In Vil·la Joana, she will be working on the translation from Croatian to Ukrainian of Two nights in Barcelona, by Aleksandra Orlic, which will coincide with her in the residency.

Behrouz Boochani (Iranian Kurdistan). Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University and Tarbiat Modares University; he has a master's degree in political science, political geography, and geopolitics. He is a Kurdish writer, journalist, intellectual, cultural manager, and film producer. Boochani was a writer for the Kurdish language magazine Werya; is an honorary member of PEN International; winner of an Amnesty International Australia Media in 2017, of the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, of the Liberty Victòria 2018 Empty Chair Award, of the Anna Politkóvskaia Award for journalism and of the PEN Catalan Free Voice Award 2020. Boochani is also the author of the book Cap altre amic que les muntanyes (Raig Verd, 2020).

PHASE 2. From May 8 to May 29

Bertol Arrieta (Zarauz, Guipuzcoa). Writer, screenwriter, and film director. He started in literature as a short story writer, with which he has won several prizes, such as the Kutxa Award for Literature of the City of Donostia in 2003, with What a wonderful world, or the X Berrigara Award in 2002, with Amodiozko gutunak (Love letters).

Marta Jordan (Poland). Translator from Spanish to Polish. She has the First Prize in the National Literary Translation Competition for her translation of Julio Cortázar. She has translated essential authors of the Spanish-American narrative into Polish. She specialises in translating contemporary Spanish drama. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her translation of the work Útimas palabras de copito de nieve, by Juan Mayorga, located in the Barcelona Zoo.

Ellen Savage (Australia). She is the author of the essay collection Blueberries, a finalist for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. She has published more than 180 essays, poems, and stories in magazines such as The Paris Review, Sydney Review of Books, The Guardian or Literary Hub, among others. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her novel Mummy, where the main character is a Catalan migrant in Australia, who believes is one of Franco's lost children (those who were sent abroad during the civil war).

PHASE 3. From May 29 to June 19

THREE PLACES RESERVED FOR THE RESIDENTS FROM CITIES OF LITERATURE

Lucy Hounsom (Exeter). Lucy Holland is the author of The Times bestselling Sistersong, which reimagines the folk ballad ‘The Twa Sisters.’ The book was a finalist for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2022. As Lucy Hounsom, she wrote the Worldmaker Trilogy. Her first book, Starborn, was shortlisted in the 2016 Gemmell Awards for Best Fantasy Debut. She worked twelve years in corporate account sales for Waterstones Booksellers before becoming a full-time author. Lucy co-hosts the intersectional feminist podcast ‘Breaking the Glass Slipper’, which won Best Audio in the 2019 British Fantasy Awards. She lives in Devon.

Philip Herold (Heidelberg). He writes and speaks. After finishing his B.A. in cultural studies he trains as a studio announcer in Berlin and is now working self-employed as an author, performer and lecturer for creative writing. He was twice german speaking Poetry Slam vice champion, found the project 7 Tage 7 Gedichte (7 days 7 poems) and is part of the collective Verschwende deine Lyrik!. In 2018 Herold publishes his first volume of poems Alles zu seiner Zeit, in 2021 he releases his spoken word EP Von hier an. In the context of the Milenial trilogy by Ivàn Perez at the dance theatre Heidelberg he writes a poem that is later set to music by the trombonist Antonia Hausmann and put out 2022 in a poetry clip.

Sára Zeithammerová (Czech Republic).

PHASE 4. From June 19 to July 10

TWO PLACES RESERVED FOR THE RESIDENTS FROM PEN – CATALUNYA

Suzanne Ibrahim (Syria). Syrian writer, poet, and journalist currently in exile in Sweden where she arrived as a hosted writer by the ICORN network of refuge cities. She has been a guest poet at the Palma Mediterranean Festival directed by Biel Mesquida, and has been part of a publication of Syrian poets translated into Catalan coordinated by Mohamad Bitari.

Caroline Brothers (Australia). Young Australian writer and journalist currently resident in London. She is a member of the English PEN. In her books she has dealt with subjects such as the disappearances during the Argentine dictatorship or the epic of the exile of two Afghan boys trying to reach England. As a journalist, she has also published a book about the Spanish Civil War.

Julia Wong (Peru). Poet, narrator and cultural manager. Daughter of Chinese immigrants settled in Peru, she is the author of fourteen books of poetry and novels. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her novel La prima mayor, a family story set between Barcelona and Trujillo, in which a woman changes her life after a transformative experience in the catalan town.

PHASE 5. From July 10 to July 31

Efe Duyan (Turkey). Poet and translator with a long career, author of four collections of poetry, his work has been translated into French, Italian, Chinese and Greek, among others. He collaborates with several poetry festivals around the world. In Vil·la Joana he will work on his first novel Gastronomia de les emocions, in Turkish, a dystopia that revolves around dark emotions and where much of the action takes place in Barcelona.

Clyde Moneyhun (United States). Translator from Catalan to English, he has translated contemporary poets such as Dolors Miquel, Anna Dodas and Maria Mercè Marçal, works that have earned him recognition such as the nomination for the Warwick University Prize for Women in Translation. In Vil·la Joana he will work on his anthology of Catalan poetry from the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Pablo Berthely (Mexico). Narrator and essayist, he has been a FONCA scholarship holder. His first novel Enemigos Imaginarios won the Jorge Ibargüengoitia National Prize. He will soon publish his second book. In Vil·la Joana he will work on his chronicle on the trail of Sergio Pitol in Barcelona, combining essay and first-person narrative.

PHASE 6. From July 31 to August 21

Saeed Matin (Iran). A translator from Catalan and Spanish to Persian, he won the Little Black Fish Award for Best Translation in 2021 by the Iran Book Council. He has translated authors such as Jaume Copons, Mario Vargas Llosa or Isabel Allende. In Vil·la Joana he will work on the translation of the poem by Jacint Verdaguer Oda a Barcelona.

Simona Hamer (Slovenia). Playwright and storyteller, she has won the Slovenian National Award for best play. Her works have been translated into English, German, Serbian, Croatian, and have been performed in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the United States, Serbia, Croatia, and Italy. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her play Feminist City, about the relationship between feminism and social movements in Barcelona.

PHASE 7. From August 21 to September 12

Sharlene Teo (Singapore). A Singaporean storyteller based in the UK, she was the winner of the Deborah Roger Writer's Award for her first novel Ponti. She has published stories and articles in some magazines such as Esquire or Magma Poetry, among others. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her novel Nada forever, based on Carmen Laforet's Nada.

Sabina Orozco (Mexico). Narrator, poet and essayist, she has been a FONCA intern. With her poetry collection Cosas que no contaré a mis padres, she won the Francisco Cervantes Vidal National Poetry Award. She has published the book of stories La lengua de los osos polares. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her project Nadie me esperaba en la estación, a chronicle that reviews the trip that the author's mother made to Barcelona while she was pregnant with her.

Yvvette Edwards (United Kingdom). Of Caribbean descent, she was born and raised in London. Her first novel, A Cupboard full of coats, was published in 2011 and was nominated for the Man Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Commonwealth Book Prize. She is the author of The Mother, published in 2016, and contributed in 2019 to the anthology New Daughters of Africa. In Vil·la Joana she will work on her next novel, which explores the reality of the “indianos” –Spanish emigrants who became rich in Latin America– in Barcelona and Catalonia's slavery past.

PHASE 8. From September 12 to October 1

Carolina Cobelo (Buenos Aires). She was born in 1982. In 2018 she published her first novel, La insurgencia cochina, by Editorial Brandon and, in 2020, her second novel, Thatcher, by Metalúcida Editora.

A PLACE RESERVED FOR LITERNATURE

Violaine Bérot (France). Born in 1967, Violaine Bérot lives in France, in the Pyrenees. For almost thirty years and through a dozen novels, she has achieved a singular and poetic literary work. She explores the unspoken, family ties, life choices and marginal existences. Her latest works deal with misfits that our societies choose to lock up (Comme des bêtes, 2021), our inability to transform our lives according to our dreams (C'est plus beau là-bas, 2022), and a crazy love that is stronger than the Church and Death (Nuits de noces, 2023).

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