On September 1st, the scholarship stays within the scope of the Visegrad Literary Residences 2017 programme started. Four scholarship holders came to Kraków to pursue their literary and artistic projects here.
Márton Simon (1984, Hungary) – poet, translator and slam poetry performer. He studied aesthetics, literature and Japanese language at Pázmány Péter and Károli Gáspár Universities and is publishing poems since 2004. Published two poetry collections: Songs from the Mezzanine (2010), Polaroids (2013). Released an experimental spoken word album too: Before You Say Something (2017) – with jazz drummer Levente Boros. Translated novels of Jennifer Egan and Etgar Keret from English, and poems of Ryuichi Tamura, Shuntaro Tanikawa (etc.) from Japanese. Regularly participates in poetry readings and slam poetry events. Is currently working on his third poetry collection. Lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.
Agda Bavi Pain (1976, Slovakia) – author and so called „controversial” artist born in Košice. He has published poetry books as well as novels and also writes for theatre, TV, film and advertising. His first book of poetry Kosť & Koža (2002, Skin & Bone) was labelled as satanic while his first gory novel Koniec sveta (2006, The End Of The World) won the international literary award Big Prize for Literature from Eastern Europe Bank Austria Literaris. First ever Slovak gangster movie Babie leto (2013, Indian summer) based on the book was premiered in cinemas in 2013. New book of threatening poems Pästiarsky list (2017, Fist List) is out this autumn.
Igor Malijevský (1970, Czech Republic) – writer and photographer. He studied theoretical physics as well as philosophy at Charles University, but since the mid-1990s he has devoted himself primarily to photography and writing. He has published three books of poetry and two collections of short stories, including Moon Above the Tagus River (2014); he established and leads EKG, a well-known monthly literary cabaret in Prague. His stories and poems are based on a poetical understanding of our everyday reality, a style he describes as “photography in words.” His works have been translated into Russian, English, Polish, German and other languages, and he has exhibited his photographs in the USA, China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Europe. His recent work includes Znamení Lvova/Signs of Lvov/знаки львова (2016), a book of photographs accompanied by poetic texts in Czech, Ukrainian, and English.
Maria Hawranek (1987, Poland) – freelance journalist and reporter. She graduated from College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków with Spanish Philology as her main area of interest and later from European Studies at Universidad de Sevilla. Since 2013 she has published in the most read and impactful Polish journals such as Gazeta Wyborcza and its supplements: Duży Format, Wysokie Obcasy, Magazyn Świąteczny, as well as Tygodnik Powszechny and Newsweek. She is a co-author of a non-fiction book We only dance at All Saints’ Day (Tańczymy już tylko w Zaduszki, Znak Publishing House, 2016) which contains 15 reportages from Latin America. It was awarded with the Magellan’s Prize 2016 for the best non-fiction book. She was also co-nominated for Teresa Torańska Nesweek’s Award 2015 for young journalist.