In September, we welcomed at Villa Decius the scholarship holders of the autumn edition of the Visegrad Literary Residencies. Until the end of November, four artists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will work on their literary projects.
Miloš Hroch (1989) – Czech music journalist living in Prague. He contributes to the British music magazine ‘The Wire’ and the Czech weekly ‘Respekt’. He has published for ‘The Guardian’, ‘The Quietus’ and ‘The Tribune’. Co-author (with Karel Veselý) of the book ‘Všechny kočky jsou šedé’ (Polish: ‘All cats are grey’, 2020), which tells the cultural history of emotions in popular music. Researcher and lecturer at the Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague.
Ivana Komanická – before becoming a writer, she worked academically and curatorially in the visual arts. In her debut, an autofictional novel entitled. “Pre teba sa postavím proti sebe” (pol. “For you I will turn against myself”, 2018), she described her artistic adventure by revisiting her teenage poems and transforming them into a story. She is the author of a bilingual book on poetry entitled. “Poézia pre dvoch / Poetry for Two” (2021), as well as the poetry book “Zvádzanie rozumu” (in Polish: “Kuszenie rozumu”, 2022). She has recently taken up a post at the Institute of Philosophy in Bratislava. She runs the independent and freelance journal Horská lucerna (in Polish, Mountain Lighthouse).
Ilka Papp-Zakor – she was born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she studied Russian and Hungarian philology. After her studies, she moved to Helsinki, where she semi-officially attended university biology courses and trained rats. Her debut collection of short stories titled. ‘Angyalvacsora’ (Polish: ‘Angel’s Dinner’) was published in 2015 by József Attila Kör. In 2018, she published her second collection of short stories (‘The Last Zoo’) and in 2021 her first novel (‘One Good Day’). She is currently working on two novels – the first tells the story of a ventriloquist and the second about a teacher whose twin sister turns out to be a moonlighting violinist.
Łukasz Jarosz (1978) – poet, musician, drummer, vocalist and lyricist of groups: Chaotic Splutter, Lesers Bend, Mgłowce, Zziajani Porywacze Makowców, Baza Ludzi Żywych. Author of several books of poetry, winner of numerous literary awards, including the Wisława Szymborska Award (for the volume entitled ‘Pełna krew’, 2012). Twice nominated for the Nike Literary Award (for the books “Świat fizyczny” and “Kardonia i Faber”). He lives in Żurada near Olkusz.
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The programme is an initiative of the International Visegrad Fund.
The operator of the Programme is the Villa Decius Association.
The Visegrad Literary Residency Programme is in cooperation with Institut umeni in Prague (CZ), Literarné informačné centrum in Bratislava (SK), Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum in Budapest (HU).
