On September 1, the “Creative Scholarships 2016” project has started. For three months, the following artists will pursue their literary and artistic projects in the historical annex of the Villa Decius – Łaski House: Inés Burdow, Iwona Ubermann, Kathrin Schrocke, Martin Ahrends, Michael Zgodzay, Sabine Hassinger, Sława Lisiecka . The “Creative Scholarships 2016” programme is addressed to German writers, literature translators from German to Polish and from Polish to German and its founder is the Polish German Cooperation Foundation.
Inés Burdow (1973) – actress, spokeswomen and author. She finished a drama course in Berlin and played a substantial role in the process of building up the German-Polish meeting place Schloss Bröllin. She performed at the Berliner Ensemble, the Volksbuehne Berlin, the Musiktheater Görlitz and the opera in Bielefeld. Besides directing own theater pieces in France, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands she also published literary texts and articles in cultural magazines. She is a freelance feature-author for the cultural radio stations of the ARD. In 1996 she obtained the Kulturförderpreis by the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for her work at the Schloss Broellin, a scholarship from the ministry of education, culture and science Mecklenburg Vorpommern (2006, 2008) and a literary scholarship as a writer in residence in the northern seaside resort Otterndorf (2009). In 2015 she was awarded with the Art Promotion Prize Literature Brandenburg and won the Pirosmani scholarship Georgia in 2016. The scholarship from the Villa Decius gives her the opportunity to continue the work on her novel with the working title “Das Schützenfest”.
Iwona Ubermann (1959) – journalist, theatre critic and translator. She studied Hungarian studies and art history in Budapest, Scandinavian studies in Gdansk and was awarded a doctorate at the LMU Munich for her dissertation on the works and directing of George Tabori. Translating from German into Polish, Iwona Uberman has won several awards as, for instance, the prize of the Polish Committee EURODRAM (2015) from which she also obtained a scholarship for translating a drama by Henriette Dushe in 2016. Uberman translates works of prose and drama. She published translations of Sybille Bergs drama “Hauptsache Arbeit”, Lukas Baerfuss “Zwanzigtausenseiten” and Lutz Huebners “Die Firma dankt”, to name a few. During her stay at the Villa Decius she wants to prepare the translation of Abbas Khiders “Die Orangen des Praesidenten” in order to make it accessible to the Polish speaking readership.
Kathrin Schrocke (1975) – writer. She studied German philology and psychology in Bamberg and completed a training as a press officer in publishing. Additionally, she participated in Vienna in a two year long correspondence course in the area of child and youth literature. Kathrin Schrocke published numerous youth novels as “Finding Alex” (2009), “Freak City” (2010) and “Die Welt steht Kopf in der Elternschule” (2010). Her books were translated into English, Italian, French, Spanish and Polish. She won numerous prizes such as the Augsburg Art Promotion Prize (2009), the Bad Harzburg Children’s Literature Prize Eselsohr (2010), the Nettal Youth Book Prize (2010) and the award “Best International Youth Novel 2012” at the book fair Cracow. Furthermore, she won scholarships from the Kuenstlerhaus Lukas Ahrenshoop (2006), from the international Kuenstlerhaus Schoeppingen (2008) and a residency from the Centre national de littérature Mersch and the ministry for the arts and culture Luxemburg (2016). For Kathrin Schrocke, the residency at the Villa Decius is an opportunity to start writing down her new youth novel.
Martin Ahrends (1951) – writer. Ahrends studied music, philosophy and theatre directing in Berlin. He published numerous literary texts, amongst others the novels “Der märkische Radfahrer“ (1992) and „Mann mit Grübchen“ (1995), the stories „Verlorenwasser“ (2000) and „Die Vertikale“ (2001, FAZ). His most famous essays are „Das große Warten“ (1989, DIE ZEIT), „Die Mauer schweigt“ (2011, DIE ZEIT) and „Wer sind hier die Sieger“ (2015, DIE ZEIT). He is the winner of numerous grants and prizes such as the Hamburg Promotion Prize for Literature (1991), the grant from the Deutscher Literaturfonds (1995/96) and the Alfred –Döblin scholarship (2006). Receiving the scholarship by the Villa Decius, he wants to continue his literary project “draussen”.
Michael Zgodzay (1974) – translator and literary scholar. He studied Slavonic studies, philosophy and theology in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Potsdam focusing his research on the cultural notions and the narrative function of pain in the work of Witold Gombrowicz. He translated the works of Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, Bożena Keff, Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało and Justyna Bargielska into German and published numerous scientific articles, reviews and essays about modern and contemporary Polish literature. During his stay at the Villa Decius he plans to translate the work “Obsoletki” by the polish writer Justyna Bargielska into German.
Sabine Hassinger (1958) – writer. She studied music therapy in Vienna and worked afterwards as a music therapist at Steinhof. Sabine Hassinger published works of prose as well as radio dramas and articles in magazines, anthologies and art books. In 2012 she read at the Ingeborg Bachman Festival from her last book “Die Taten und Laute des Tages”, which was published in 2015. She won numerous scholarships as for instance the Senatsstipendium by the Literarisches Colloquiums Berlin (1988), a Residency in Amsterdam (1993), a scholarship from the Kuenstlerhaus Lukas (1998, 2008) and a residency at the Kuenstlerdorf Schoeppingen (2012). Sabine Hassinger won the Martha Saalfeld promotion prize (1996) and was shortlisted for the Magus prize in 2013. During her residency at the Villa Decius she wants to carry on working on her novel “Frau Schneider lernt Polnisch”.
Sława Lisiecka (1947) – translator. She studied German philology at the university of Łódź and worked afterwards as a German teacher and editor. She translated roughly 100 novels, dramas and poems into Polish and published the translations of works by Thomas Bernhard, Stefan Heym, Karl Dedecius, Ingeborg Bachmann and Juli Zeh, to name a few. Lisiecka won numerous awards, i.a. the translation award by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Deutsches Polen Institut in Darmstadt (1985), the Austrian government Translation Award translatio (2006), the Officer’s cross from the Order of Polonia Restituta for her services to Poland’s independence and her cultural and professional work (2007), the award “Literatura na świecie” for her translation of the novel “Mutmaβungen über Jakob“ by Uwe Johnson (2009), the award of the city of Łódź (2011) and the prize of the Kunststiftung North Rhine-Westphalia (2012). Additionally, she was the holder of the scholarship by the Robert Bosch Foundation (1988, 1990) and was awarded the scholarship Translator in Residence by the Europäisches Übersetzers Kollegium in Straelen. During her stay at the Villa Decius she wants to translate the novel “Am Fluss” by Esther Kinsky.
