Creative residencies for writers and translators have had a long and noble tradition in Europe and across the world. Luther translated the Bible while hiding safely at Wartburg Castle, the French Academy in Rome has received fellows since the early 18th century, and Rilke wrote his Duino Elegies while a guest of Duino Castle.
Across centuries, the concept has remained unchanged – artists are offered a place of temporary residence, of several weeks or months, to engage in their work in peace and quiet, without the distraction of daily life and, perhaps most importantly, to make new friendships with their peers, an opportunity often missing in the lonely writing career.
What are the artists' experiences of residency? What can they gain from the local literary environment? How does the writer-in-residence create the culture of the hosting city? The meeting inaugurating "Literary Residences" - an international database of programs for writers and - will be attended by:
Julia Cimafeyeva (Belarus),
Antonia Lloyd Jones (UK),
Aleš Šteger (Slovenia).
The conversation will be moderated by Justyna Czechowska and Jacek Dehnel.
About the project "Literary residences":
Common residency program and the first such website about residences - Gdańsk, Kraków, and Warsaw, in cooperation with the Literary Union and the Polish Literary Translators Association, inaugurate a project dedicated to writers, and translators in Poland and around the world. Soon, on the website literaryresidenciespoland.pl, you will check the current recruitment, meet others writers-in-residence as well as learn more about the residency programs of the organizers of this project. Join the event to keep an eye on - we will inform you about the website’s start!
The literaryresidenciespoland.pl website will be moderated by the City Culture Institute in Gdańsk, KBF - a cultural institution of the City of Kraków, the operator of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature program - and Staromiejski Cultural Center in Warsaw.