2023 International Writing Program (IWP) Panel: On the Body

A conversation between three IWP 2023 Fall Residency writers on the theme of "On the Body," followed by Q&A.

Busisiwe Mahlangu (poet, playwright, fiction writer; South Africa) is the author of Surviving Loss, a 2018 poetry collection also adapted for theater. She was awarded the inaugural South Africa National Poetry Prize, has had work longlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award, and is published in Kalahari, Atlanta Review, 20.35 Africa, Best ‘New’ African Poets, and elsewhere. In 2022, she was a fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study. Her participation is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
Kevin Chen (novelist; Taiwan) started his career as a stage and screen actor. He is also the author of ten novels and short story collections, which have garnered him several literary awards in Taiwan. Ghost Town, in Darryl Sterk’s translation, among Library Journal’s Best Books of World Literature 2022, was longlisted for PEN’s 2023 Translation Prize and will be translated into 11 languages. Chen lives in Berlin, where he long was foreign correspondent for Taiwanese tv. His participation was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
Wesley Macheso (fiction; poetry; editor; Malawi) won the Peer Gynt Literary Award for his children’s book Akuzike and the Gods (2017). Twice shortlisted for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship and longlisted for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize, he is the author of the collection A Masquerade of Spirits (2020); his poems are included in the 2020 anthology Wreaths for a Wayfarer and widely in journals on-line. He is an associate professor at the University of Malawi. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Department of State, courtesy the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Books and Writing International Writing Program