Ciarán Carson

Distinguished Writer in Residence
March 1-March 6, 2009

Ciarán Carson, a musician and poet, has published two books on Irish traditional music, The Pocket Guide to Traditional Music (1986) and Last Night’s Fun (1997). His nine collections of poetry include Belfast Confetti (1989), which received the Irish Times Literature Prize; First Language (1993), which was awarded the T.S. Eliot prize; and Breaking News (2003). His translation of Dante’s Inferno appeared in 2002 and a translation of the Old Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailgne was published in 2007. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Poetry and Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University, Belfast. He is the 2008- 2009 Lannan Distinguished Writer in Residence at Georgetown University.

Henrietta Rose-Innes

Caine Prize Writer in Residence
January 23-February 20, 2009

Henrietta Rose-Innes of South Africa is the winner of the 2008 Caine Prize for African Writing for a short story, "Poison." She has published two novels, Shark’s Egg (2000) and The Rock Alphabet (2004) and is writing a third. She currently works as a literary editor and TV/film scriptwriter and script editor, and tutors a seminar in Writing for TV at the University of Cape Town. Ms. Rose-Innes is the 2008-2009 Caine Prize Writer in Residence at Georgetown University.

http://www.caineprize.com/

Monica Arac de Nyeko

Caine Prize Writer in Residence

Winner of the 2007 Caine Prize for “Jambula Tree,” Monica Arac de Nyeko was also short-listed for the prize in 2004 for “Strange Fruit.” She sees herself as part of the new generation of African writers seeking an imperative voice in Africa today: “It is my Uganda, my land, Africa, my world, my universe, too after all and it will be for my children.”

http://www.caineprize.com/

Courttia Newland

British Council (USA) Writer in Residence 2007

Courttia Newland was born in 1973 in Hammersmith, west London, where his highly acclaimed first novel, The Scholar (1998), is set. His second book, Society Within (1999), is a collection of short stories about young black Londoners. In his latest novel, Snakeskin (2002), a black politician is shocked by the police investigation into the murder of his daughter. He is the editor of IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000). His plays include the acclaimed The Far Side, about the murder of a young black man by a white youth, and Mother's Day, premiered at the Lyric Studio Hammersmith in autumn 2002. He is Writer in Residence at The Post Office Theatre in West London and is currently writing the screenplay to a film adaptation of The Scholar.

Dinaw Mengestu

Lannan Visiting Writer, Spring 2007

Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980 he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled the communist revolution in Ethiopia two years before. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and of Columbia University's MFA program in fiction. He is the recipient of a 2006 fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first novel, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, will be published this March by Penguin Riverhead. He has also recently reported stories for Harper's and Jane magazine, profiling a young woman who was kidnapped and forced to become a soldier in the brutal war in Uganda, and for Rolling Stone on the tragedy in Darfur. The Lannan Visiting Writer at Georgetown University for spring 2007, Mengestu lives in New York City.

Diran Adebayo

British Council (USA) Writer in Residence 2006

Diran Adebayo's magical ride onto the literary A-list began with the release of his first novel, Some Kind of Black, winner of the prestigious Betty Trask Award. His second novel, My Once Upon a Time, moved the Daily Telegraph to declare: "This is a book that sings...by turns rhapsodic, exhilerating and poignant." Adebayo's residency is co-sponsored by the Program in African-American Studies and the Humanities Initiative.

Derek Walcott

Distinuished Writer in Residence 2005

The 1992 Nobel Laureate and prodigal of the English language continues to astonish in his 75th year. Adding to a recently issued collection of plays, The Haitian Trilogy, his essays, What the Twilight Said, and interviews, Conversations with Derek Walcott, the author published a new book of poems last year, The Prodigal. A MacArthur Fellowship and the Queen's Medal for poetry are among his many honors. He lives in St. Lucia and New York.

Donna Hemans

Visiting Writer 2004-2005

Bio forthcoming...