As part of the open call to participate in the 2020 residency programme, which is part of the Ulysses' Shelter 2 project, a three-person panel (consisting of Lara Mitraković, Marko Tomaš and Ivan Sršen) has chosen three candidates who will be participating in the residency programme during 2020.

The candidates have been selected from different literary fields.

Maja Klarić (1985, Šibenik) graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb with majors in English Language and Literature, and Comparative Literature. She works as a literary translator, editor and cultural event organiser. She organises and leads the international poetry gathering Wood Poets in Istria. Her poetry has been published in all relevant Croatian literary magazines: Zarez, Quorum, Knjigomat, Poezija. As a poet, she has been included in the anthologies Erato 2004. (Zagreb), Rukopisi 32 (Pančevo), Ja sam priča (Banja Luka), Sea of Words (Barcelona) and Castello di Duino (Trieste). Her work is included as required reading in an eighth-grade textbook for Croatian Language (Narančasta čitanka, Profil). She has received awards at the international poetry competition Castello di Duino (Trieste, Italy, 2008), international short story contest Sea of Words (Barcelona, Spain, 2008), literary competition Ulaznica 2010 and 2012 (Zrenjanin, Serbia). She is the winner of the UNESCO/Aschberg scholarship for a two-month stay at a writers' residency in Brasil (Istituto Sacatar, Itaparica, 2012 and 2019), as well as a scholarship from the organisation MOKS for a one-month artists' stay in Estonia (Mooste, Tartu). She has published the poetry collections Život u ruksaku (AGM, Zagreb, 2012), Quinta Pitanga (VBZ, Zagreb, 2013), Nedovršeno stvaranje (self-published, Šibenik, 2015), as well as the travel books Vrijeme badema (Kulturna udruga Fotopoetika, Šibenik, 2016) and Približavanje zore: Put 88 hramova (Kulturna udruga Fotopoetika, Šibenik, 2019). Her book Vrijeme badema has also been made available as a radio novel and an audiobook, and is included in the catalogue of the Croatian Library for the Blind. During her residential stay, she will be working on a poetry collection that should be completed by Autumn 2020.

Maja Ručević (1983, Zagreb) graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb with majors in Croatian and French. She works as a journalist and translator and is the winner of two poetry prizes. Her debut novel Je suis Jednoruki (Algoritam, 2016) was short-listed for several awards. Her work has been published online and in literary magazines. She is currently working on a new work of fiction. Her translations from French into Croatian include Adeline Dieudonné's novel La vraie vie (Stvarni život), Laetitia Colombani's novel La tresse (Pletenica), and Gilles Legardinier's Completement cramé (Potpuno spaljen), all published by Znanje press. During her time at the Ulysses residencies, she will be mainly working on translating a new novel, as well as writing a short story collection.

Dino Pešut (1990, Sisak) has graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb with a major in Dramaturgy (focusing on drama and film writing). He works as a dramatist and director in Croatia and abroad. As a playwright, he debuted with the play Pritisci moje generacije at the Croatian National Theatre in Split. The play (Pret)posljednja panda ili statika, directed by Saša Božić, premiered at the Zagreb Youth Theatre in Zagreb. In 2016, he was invited to attend the programme Stueckemarkt as part of the festival Theatertreffen in Berlin with the same play. He won a DEUTSCHEN JUGENDTHEATERPRES for the same text in 2018. The play premiered in German-speaking countries at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 2019. He is the winner of five Marin Držić Awards which are granted by the Ministry of Culture for Best new dramatic text. His award-winning and performed texts are L.U.Z.E.R.I., (Pret)posljednja panda ili statika, Veliki hotel Bezdan, Stela, poplava, Olympia Stadion, Djeca recesije. He writes the Futuring column for the newspaper Večernji list. In 2018, he published his first novel Poderana koljena. He is currently developing and writing a new project – a book of literary coverages and poetic travel writings focused on ex-Yugoslavian capital cities.

The Ulysses' Shelter project was started in 2017 with the objective to build a network of exchange literary residencies for young prose and/or poetry writers and literary translators. The second stage of Ulysses' Shelter is once again being co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, and as a project run by Croatian publishing house and literary agency Sandorf, alongside four partners – Literature Across Frontiers and Wales Literature Exchange from Wales, Krokodil from Belgrade (Serbia), Thraka from Larissa (Greece), and Slovene Writers' Association from Ljubljana (Slovenia) – it aims to develop a literary residency network across Europe.

The chosen candidates from the partner organisations are:

Thraka, Larissa: Dimitris Karakitsos, Marilena Papaioanou, Thomas Tsalapatis

Slovene Writers' Association, Ljubljana: Dejan Koban, Davorin Lenko, Katja Zakrajšek

Krokodil, Belgrade: Danilo Lučić, Maša Seničić, Nataša Srdić

Literature Across Frontiers, Wales: Steven Hitchins, Eluned Gramich, Lloyd Markham, Grug Muse

The next open call is planned for Autumn 2020, during which three candidates will once again be selected to participate in the 2021 residency programme.

We invite you to keep following along!