Europe offers plentiful opportunities for writers to immerse themselves in their craft and develop their skills in inspiring settings. Browse current residency opportunities here.
Since 1997, Amsterdam Vluchtstad has offered temporary accommodation, often for a period of one year, to writers, poets or journalists who are persecuted, threatened or otherwise prevented from writing in their home countries because of their writing. The Amsterdam Vluchtstad apartment is located in the former home of the Frank family, where Anne Frank once started her diary.
Writers, poets and literary translators can rent the Roland Holsthuis in Bergen as a workplace for a month. The Bert Schierbeek Fund offers them the opportunity to work in peace at this literary-historically unique location. Each year, one calendar month is reserved for the winner of the BNG Bank Literature Prize selected by the Readers’ Jury.
Since 2006, the Dutch Foundation for Literature has welcomed foreign authors to the Spui in Amsterdam as writers in residence. Only authors whose works have been translated into Dutch by a Dutch publishing house can apply. Novelists, poets, and children book writers are eligible for the program. Even though the program is mainly intended for European authors, it does not exclude authors from outside of Europe. The residency period lasts from four to six weeks.
The Translators’ House Amsterdam is part of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. Founded in 1991, it provides accommodation for five translators of Dutch children’s and young adult literature, adult literature, literary non-fiction, and poetry. To qualify, translators must be in possession of a translation contract. The minimum stay is two weeks, while the maximum stay is two months.
The Chronicles is Crossing Border’s annual residency project for authors and translators. Each day of the festival, an up-and-coming writer works on a blog of that day’s events, capturing their insights and experiences of the artists performing on the Crossing Border stage. At the same time, translators get to work and offer the audience a near-simultaneous translation. The aim is to showcase the skill and talent of both the writer and translator and show how the process works. The authors will write one story prior to the festival, one on each day of the festival on 2, 3 and 4 November and a final story to conclude their experiences of Crossing Border.
The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences is committed to promoting interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research for established and early career scholars. The writer-in-residence program at NIAS in Amsterdam is a joint initiative of NIAS and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
