​Chair Poet in Residence Program invites foreign poets and Indian poets from outside West Bengal to undertake a residency in Kolkata. The writers are offered the opportunity to work on a manuscript and to familiarise themselves with city's heritage, culture and literature. The poets in the residency have to complete a work on a manuscript during the residency. The poets will also be offered an opportunity to present public readings in the city. During their stay, the poets will interact for a cultural exchange with culturally interested people, artists, organisations and writers in West Bengal.

Application deadline: 30. October 2023
Final selection: 15. November 2023

November-December residency
Start of the residence: 27. November 2023
End of the residence: 15. December 2023

January-February residency
Start of the residence: 15. January 2024
End of the residence: 31. January 2024

1. Poets wishing to apply for residence should send their application to chairpoetryevenings@gmail.com, comprising:
   • a curriculum vitae in English listing publications/awards/festival readings.
   • a letter explaining their inspiration.
   • a short description of the manuscript or project on which they will work during their stay in Kolkata. 
   • 10 pages of sample work.
2. The file should be written in English. 
3. Applicants will be informed of the receipt of their application within 15 days. 
4. In selecting candidates, the organisation relies on a number of advisors from both home and abroad. The final decision is taken by the organisation itself.
5. Poets do not need to submit any recommendation or reference in the application.

During the residency the poet in residence has a flat at his disposal in Kolkata. In the immediate vicinity there are numerous restaurants, malls, shops, cafes and markets. In the area there are several types of public transport available including  metro, taxi, and bus.

The spacious flat consists of a living room, two air conditioned bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and balcony. The poet will be provided with free internet facilities.




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Address of the residence:

Mani Casa 213H & 215H, New Town, Kolkata
​ West Bengal 700135, India

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Poets in Residence 2023-24

Amir Or

Poets in Residence 2018-19 and 2019-20

Margus Lattik (Estonia)

Franca Mancinelli (Italy)

the residency has an excellent setting and location for a writer and I've been very pleasantly surprised by Kolkata altogether. - Margus Lattik

It’s a chair and it’s a cradle: it dangles. It’s not a throne; from there you don’t have the power to change the world. But, in a certain way, you can do it. 
 From this cradle chair, you can come back to the beginning of your life and to the beginning of the world, to that original sound that creates everything. Each time that we write, each time that we give birth to anything, we come back to that origin. We just listen and host that vibration. 
Near the chair there are three knights, three warriors: a small community that defends and guards the cradle chair, the possibility of creating in this world. Because beauty has to be preserved and kept alive, fighting. 
 In this childhood that I’m re-experiencing here, thanks to this residency, I have discovered that in English there is just one letter dividing “world” from “word”. And there is a truth in this: words are worlds that you can create and in which you can live, and the world is created by a word. 
 As Marina Tsvetaeva wrote, poets will always be strangers, bearing the traces of exile. The real home of a poet is language.
 I have always had the feeling of being a passenger in this life and in this body. (......) These days in Kolkata are teaching me much, and changing me much. They will leave deep traces.

​- Franca Marcinelli

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