Almaty Writing Residency is an international project organized by Olga Markova Open Literature School of Almaty (OLSA) and the renowned IWP International Writing Program. With the pilot Writers Residency in Kazakhstan taking place in 2021, it has become an annual event for Kazakhstani writers, poets, and authors from near and far.
ALmaty writING residency - iwp international writers program
Almaty Writing Residency is a collaborative international project of the OLSA and the renowned IWP Writers Residency.
The IWP was founded by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle as a non-academic, internationally focused counterpart to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets across the world. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,500 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 150 countries. Its primary goal is to introduce talented writers to the writing community at the University of Iowa, and to provide for the writers a period of optimal conditions for their creative work. Since 2000, the IWP has been directed by poet and journalist Christopher Merrill.
HOW IS THE WRITERS RESIDENCY ORGANIZED?
To make for an immersive creative environment, residents will live on the territory of one space. Participants will work together on writing projects, discuss literary and literature-related issues, partake in creative meetings and public events, and take tours of the city and the surrounding area. Any author can become a participant on the basis of competitive admission. Both established playwrights, prose writers and poets, as well as those taking their first steps, are invited to submit their proposals. Experienced authors will be given preference. The residency events will be held in three languages — English, Kazakh, and Russian, with our interpreters available at all times. Travel costs to Almaty and back, as well as accommodation will be covered for the writers admitted into the program. The basic requirement for the authors is active participation in the activities of the residency.
ALmaty writING residency 2025
This year, AWR becomes a unique platform for creative exchange and cultural interaction among playwrights! We invite Kazakhstani authors of plays, performances, productions, and new theatrical forms—especially those working in the post-drama genre in Kazakh and Russian—to participate in AWR 2025.
The selection criteria, beyond the submitted essay, include candidates’ experience in theatrical projects. Participants will receive accommodation in Almaty and round-trip travel from any city in Kazakhstan.
To apply, submit an essay (up to 6,000 characters) on one of the topics below. Send your essay in Word format (in Kazakh or Russian), the completed application form, and a copy of your ID to: Almatywritingresidency@gmail.com
Essay Topics:
AWR timeline 2025
Opening of the residency. Meet the AWR-25 participants. The theatrical landscape of Kazakhstan.
Speakers:
Venue: Small Stage, ARTiSHOCK Theatre
Address: 49 Kunaev Street
Global opportunities for Kazakhstani theatres and playwrights. Selection of Kazakhstani productions for international festivals. Participation of plays from Kazakhstan in international playwriting competitions.
Speakers:
Venue: American Space & Makerspace Almaty
Address: 280 Baizakov Street
An author’s method of working with a dramatic text. How plays are selected for production at a state theatre.
Speakers:
Venue: American Space & Makerspace Almaty
Address: 280 Baizakov Street
Scott Bradley. Creative talk with a playwright: working methods and trends in American playwriting.
Speaker:
Venue: American Space & Makerspace Almaty
Address: 280 Baizakov Street
Theatres VS Playwrights. Why is contemporary Kazakhstani theatre not interested in contemporary Kazakhstani playwriting—and how can this be changed?
A discussion with independent directors, theatre managers, and playwrights.
Speakers:
Venue: American Space & Makerspace Almaty
Address: 280 Baizakov Street
All events are held in Kazakh, Russian, and English languages with interpretation.
Events hosted by American Space & Makerspace Almaty, Baizakova, 280. SmArt.PointOUR PARTNERS:
The United States inaugurated the Consulate General in Almaty – the only American Consulate in Central Asia – in December 2009. The Consulate General hosts offices of the Department of State (including Consular, Public Affairs and Political/Economic Sections), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This consular district encompasses the four southern regions (oblasti) of Kazakhstan, although many Consulate agencies and sections have broader mandates in Kazakhstan and in Central Asia.
The U.S. Consulate General in Almaty works on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, such as trade, commerce, economic development, democracy and governance, humanitarian assistance, health promotion and disease control, counter-narcotics and environmental protection. The Consulate General also provides services to American citizens and businesses in Kazakhstan.
Chevron Corporation, headquartered in San Ramon, California, is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries operating worldwide. The company is involved in literally every area of energy development, including the exploration, production and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; the refining, marketing and distribution of transportation fuels and other energy products; the manufacture and sale of petrochemical products; the production of electricity and geothermal energy; the development of energy efficiency solutions; and the development of future energy resources, including biofuels. Chevron supports several socially-oriented and cultural projects in Kazakhstan, including the Almaty Writing Residency, launching in 2021.
SCOTT BRADLEY is a theatremaker, producer, and writer. As co-founder of The Scooty & JoJo Show, he created Chicago’s long-running «cult» musicals Alien Queen and Carpenters Halloween, as well as the acclaimed Mollywood, Tran: The Atari Musical, the comedy/variety programs The Scooty & JoJo Variety Hour, Thank God! It’s The Scooty & JoJo Show, and weekly entertainment Diva Brunch. His musical We Three Lizas (book, lyrics, performer) premiered with About Face Theatre and has enjoyed multiple productions nationally. His solo memoir Packing premiered with About Face Theatre in 2019.
Regional credits include Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, New Works Project, adobe theater company, Next Stage Theater, HOME for Contemporary Theatre & Art, BACA Downtown, About Face Theatre, Metro Chicago, The Hypocrites, Walkabout Theatre Company, BigTop JoJo, Hell In A Handbag Productions, Washington Shakespeare Company, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, UMO Ensemble, Open Circle Theater, AHA! Theatre and Bald Faced Lie.
Bradley is an Iowa Arts Fellow, an Artistic Associate of About Face Theatre, alumnus of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and a member of Dramatists Guild, AEA and SAG/AFTRA.
Born in 1998 in South Kazakhstan Region.
She graduated from the T.K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts with a degree in Film and Television Dramaturgy (under the mentorship of writer and playwright Sultanali Balgabayev) and earned a Master’s degree in Art Studies. She currently lives in Shymkent.
Her creative career began in 2018 as an editor at the Positive film festival, organized by the Kazygurtfilm studio. Since then, she has worked in the fields of media, theatre, and cinema. She served as literary manager at the M. Auezov Kazakh National Drama Theatre and contributed to the cultural platform Oner.kz, the Otyrar TV channel, and other cultural projects. At present, she works as an independent screenwriter at a Shymkent-based children’s film studio and also teaches in the Department of Arts at M. Auezov South Kazakhstan University.
She is the author of more than fifty short film projects for children and teenagers, as well as scripts for several television series broadcast on Balapan and Astana TV channels. She also authored the literary translation of Olzhas Zhanaidarov’s play Two in a Café (staged as Ekeumiz by N. Dubs at the M. Auezov Kazakh National Drama Theatre).
Actress, teacher, and director. She lives in Semey. She graduated from the Yekaterinburg State Theatre Institute with a degree in Acting. She worked as an actress at the F.M. Dostoevsky Regional Drama Theatre. She also taught and directed at the youth theatres Beit-Shemesh and Glueck. She is currently the head of the Fourth Wall theatre workshop at the Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity in Semey.
She has taken part in the following projects: Inclusive Theatre (2018–2020), Inventive Theatre (writing and staging plays with children, 2021 and 2024), Drama.KZ/Cities (2025), and I Am Drama-Marathon (2025).
Author of the plays: As Long as We Remember, Deportation: The Story of a German Family, The Wormwood Christmas Tree (based on the book by Olga Kolpakova), Finding Home (Theatre.doc), and The Time of Tangerines.
Kazakhstani writer and playwright. Born in Aktobe in 1978.
He graduated from Full Sail University (USA, Creative Writing program), and is an alumnus of the Prose course at the Open Literary School of Almaty and the Contemporary Playwriting Laboratory led by Olzhas Zhanaidarov. He is the author of more than thirty novels in the genres of LitRPG, science fiction, and fantasy. His books are published in Kazakhstan, the USA, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and other countries, and have been translated into English, German, Czech, and Polish.
He made his debut with the novella Bricks (2003–2004). His novel Level Up. Restart (Eksmo, 2017) brought him wide recognition. The sequel, Bricks 2.0, was adapted into the film Personal Growth Training by director Farkhat Sharipov, which received the Grand Prix at the 41st Moscow International Film Festival.
He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Kazakhstan, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Kazakh PEN, and the American LitRPG & Gamelit Guild.
Writer and playwright. Born in 1988 in the city of Alga, Aktobe Region.
She graduated from the Aktobe State Pedagogical Institute with a degree in Defectology.
Her short stories have been published in the literary and art journals Tan-Sholpan and Tör-Altai, as well as in the newspaper Zaŋ.
In 2022, she won second place in the national competition Village Stories named after Oralkhan Bokeev, and second place in the national competition of detective works named after Kemel Tokayev. In 2024, she won in the Detective category of the Altyn Kalam literary award.
In 2025, her monodrama Arba was staged at the Raiymbek Seitmetov Music and Drama Theatre in Turkestan.
Born in Aktobe Region.
He graduated from the Kazakh National University of Arts (Astana) with a degree in Musical Theatre Performance. Since 2018, he has been working as an actor at the Azerbaijan Mambetov State Drama and Comedy Theatre in Astana.
His plays Tuk-Mar Qonaq Üyi (Tuk-Mar Hotel), 018-Avtobus (Bus 018), and Allo were shortlisted for the Drama.KZ festival. His play Ұrılar (Thieves) is being staged at the Zh. Aymautov Pavlodar Regional Kazakh Music and Drama Theatre.
In 2020, he won second place at the international Shabyt festival. In 2023, he received the award of the Union of Theatre Critics of Kazakhstan in the category Playwright of the Year. That same year, he also took second place in the Second National Playwriting Competition, organized by the Department of Culture, Archives and Documentation of Aktobe Region and the T. Akhtanov Aktobe Regional Drama Theatre.
In 2025, he was included in Forbes 30 under 30 as a successful actor and playwright.
Poet and playwright. Born in Semey, now lives in Almaty.
He is a non-executive director in the co-writing metaverse tan_qalam and a member of the poetic metaverse Attempt No. 5, Which Is Attempt No. 3, Which Is Writers Asking Questions Without Answers.
He has participated in the contemporary playwriting festival Drama.KZ (2024) and the short play micro-festival Dramarathon (2024–2025). He is also an editor of the literary and critical project Metajournal.
Artistic Director of ARTiSHOCK Theatre. She graduated from the Benefis Theatre School (Kazakhstan) in 1992. From 1992–2001, she worked at Postskriptum Theatre (Almaty), Galleria (Omsk), and Sats Youth Theatre (Almaty). In 2001, she graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Trade Unions, Faculty of Arts. Since then, she’s directed around 40 productions across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia at ARTiSHOCK Theatre. In December 2021, she received the Ministry of Culture’s “Excellence in Culture” badge. She also teaches the Fundamentals of Directing course for actor-director groups at ARTiSHOCK Theatre.
Literary scholar, poet, and playwright. She holds a BA from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and an MA from Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University. She created and hosted the TV programs Literature and Humanity (Әдебиет пен адамзат) and BOOKclub. She’s produced films on Kazakh literature and writers and founded the literary club Janr. Her poetry collections include Otqarak, What’s Your Name? (Сенің атың кім?), and Something(Бірдеңе). Her play Қабырға қалқасында was staged at ARTKOSHE Theatre and ranked among the year’s best solo performances. She researches gender literature, publishing feminist literary criticism and identity-theory articles. She won the Ақ Қауырсын and Самғау literary prizes.
Director and teacher. Since 2014, she’s been Chief Director of the Republican Academic German Drama Theatre. She lectures in Directing and Acting Skills at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts (T.K. Zhurgenov). She’s directed over 40 productions. In 2015, she received a gold medal for contributions to interethnic cultural development on the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan’s 20th anniversary.
Candidate of Art History, Associate Professor, and Head of Theatre and Cinema at the M.O. Auezov Institute of Literature and Art (Ministry of Education and Science). He’s on the Presidium of the Union of Theatre Workers and is Vice President of the Association of Theatre Critics. He chairs the Union of Writers’ Dramaturgy Council. He graduated from Kurmangazy Almaty State Conservatory (1990) and T.K. Zhurgenov Academy (1995), earning his PhD in 2004. Since 2008, he’s been a senior researcher and Associate Professor at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts and Kurmangazy Conservatory. His research covers national opera, drama theatre, directing, and acting theory. He’s authored or edited over 30 monographs and 150 studies, served on juries at festivals (Bishkek, Aktobe, Istanbul, and more), and organized conferences.
OUR TEAM:
Director, writer, and cultural researcher (PhD). He graduated from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and the University of Warmia and Mazury (Poland). He’s published in Prostor, Knigolyub, Druzhba Narodov, Znamya, Novy Mir, Vozdukh, Den i Noch, Novaya Yunost, Prolog, Yunost, Iowa Magazine, and more. He won the Russian Prize for Short Prose (2010, 2014), the Altyn Kalam Award, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan State Award, and the Order of Kurmet. He participated in IWP’s US residency (2017) and edited the Polish diaspora magazine Ałmatyński Kurier Polonijny. He’s been Prose Editor at LiterraTura and led seminars at OLSHA and IWP. He’s Vice President of the Kazakh PEN Club.
Playwright and curator of the Drama.KZ festival (2019/2020). She edits the online journal Dactil’s Dramaturgy section and directs documentary films. She studied Literary Creativity at Yekaterinburg State Theatre Institute (N. Kolyada’s workshop) and completed screenwriting courses at T.K. Zhurgenov Academy and Olzhas Janaydarov’s dramaturgy lab. She long-listed at Nim-2018, participated in Two Days of Theatre and Dramamarathon, and joined the #цензурасыз project. Her play Zalipushka was included in the “Specially Noted” list at Lyubimovka (2024) and read at Teatr.doc’s Young Playwrights Festival (2025). Her Drama.lab piece The Lost Daughter is in the 2025 Freedom Festival (Narva, Estonia). She joined UNESCO’s Central Asian Screenwriting Laboratory and graduated from Internews Documentary Film School. She’s currently filming her debut feature Ystyq zher.
She is a novelist, publicist, and theater reviewer. She completed three courses at the Open Literary School of Almaty and participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, as well as a literary translators’ workshop at the Almaty Writing Residency (2022). She took part in the Forum of Young Writers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan (2021). She is the editor-in-chief of The Alma Review, a blog about Kazakhstani literature. Her work has been published in journals such as Daktil, Polutona, Formaslov, Chetyrehlistnik, Angime, and in the almanacs Articulation and LiterraNova. She was shortlisted for the Qalamdas Literary Prize in 2022 and works as a journalist for Orda.kz, Forbes,Esquire, Manshuq, and other platforms.
Dina Makhmetova is a playwright, theatre historian, translator. Graduated from Zhurgenov National Academy of Arts with a major in Theatre Studies and from the translation department of Abylai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages. She is a graduate of the writers’ master class of the Mussagetes PF. Readings of her plays took place at ARTiShock theatre (Almaty, 2005 –2006), the festival of Ilkhom theatre organized by “Status Plus” studio (Tashkent, 2009). In the Open Literary School of Almaty she runs a playwriting and screenwriting seminar, creative writing for youth workshop. Her works were published in the online magazine Text Only, in the literary almanac “Literra Nova”.
Anton Platonov is a translator and art manager. He graduated from the translation department at St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, a student of translator and writer Vera Reznik. Participant of the poetry seminars of the Open Literary School Almaty season 2015-2016. He translates contemporary prose from English, Spanish, and German, researches and translates beatnik poetry, with the special focus on Gregory Corso. He writes and translates texts about contemporary art and philosophy. His translations and essays have been published in the electronic publication Лиterraтура, Esquire, Sygma, etc. One of the founders and head of the projects “Illustrated Guide to the Meanings of Almaty” and editor-in-chief at ariadna.media — a media about contemporary art in Central Asia. Co-founder and co-head of the Laboratory for Literary Translation (supported by the U.S. Mission to Kazakhstan). He lives and works in Almaty.
Valeria Krutova is a prose writer, coordinator of the Almaty Open Literary School, and the first Almaty Writing Residency in Central Asia. She authored the short story collection “Наверность”, published in the Daktil literary magazine book series. Krutova’s short stories have been translated into Kazakh, English, and German.
Official media:
The mission of this blog is to make this literature more visible by writing reviews of new works, interviewing authors, celebrating good news, etc.
“Daktyl” is a magazine that seeks to expand the space of literature in Kazakhstan. We publish texts in Russian and Kazakh languages.
Telegram channel about the creative life of Almaty and Kazakhstan. Reviews of plays, books, exhibitions, as well as the author’s reflections on the art scene. News from the world of culture.
“Olya Leads to the Theatre” — a subjective media outlet about theater in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia (and in all other countries where its author travels to watch theater), featuring reviews of plays, books, and and exhibitions, along with the author’s reflections on the cultural scene. It was created by Olga Malysheva — a playwright whose works are staged in both state and independent theaters across Kazakhstan, a critic with over ten years of passion for theater, and a producer actively shaping the artistic landscape of her city and country.
News and Analitics media
Supporting literature is a long-term investment, but some results have already become evident: new works of the participants are coming out, a media about Kazakhstani literature has appeared, the residency is becoming part of the literary process and part of the cultural landscape of our beloved city. This shows that there is a demand for the AWR and that we have found our niche. The AWR is a unique program for Kazakhstan.
Sonnet Mondal is an award-winning Indian poet, editor, and author of An Afternoon in My Mind (Copper Coin 2022/Bite-Sized Books, U.K.), Karmic Chanting (Copper Coin 2018), Ink and Line (Dhauli Books 2018) and five other books of poetry. He has read as an invited poet at literary festivals in USA, Macedonia, Ireland, Turkey, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, Madagascar, South Africa, and Slovakia. He was awarded Gayatri Gamarsh Memorial Award for literary excellence in 2016, Godyoo Podyo Probondho Award in 2023, and was shortlisted for Tagore Literary Prize in 2020. His writings have appeared in publications across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. His recent works have appeared in the Harper’s Bazaar, Virginia Quarterly Review, Stand Magazine, Words Without Borders, Singing in the Dark (Penguin Random House), Luvina magazine (University of Guadalajara, Mexico), La Otra (University of Mexico), Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Stand magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review (University of Salzburg), and Mascara Literary Review among others. Mondal was one of the authors of the Silk Routes project of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa from 2014 to 2016. Founder director of Chair Poetry Evenings – Kolkata’s International Poetry Festival, Mondal edits the Indian section of Lyrikline (Haus für Poesie, Berlin) and serves as managing editor of Verseville. He has been a guest editor for Words Without Borders, New York, and Poetry at Sangam, India. His works have been translated in over twenty languages.
Olga Markova Almaty Open Literary School and Almaty Writing Residency presents the guest in 2023 – Sonnet Mondal, poet, India.
He took part in the AWR Kazakhstani literary translators’ workshop from 09/29/23 to 10/04/23; publication of Sonnet Mondal’s poems in Kazakh and Russian will be the result of translator’s work.
Public meeting with Sonnet Mondal and poetry reading at the American Space and Maker Space Almaty, 03.10.2023.
20.08.2021 — Almaty Writing Residency 2021 — This year residency participants list.
АLMATY - THE CITY'S LITERARY HISTORY:
The former capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, called in different periods Alma-Ata and Verny, has been the cultural center of the country. The city’s literary history is rich and spans many cultures. The great writers and poets of Kazakhstan worked here. Some made the city the setting for their books. The monumental building of the Union of Writers, Mukhtar Auezov house-museum, the monuments to Abai, Zhambyl, Gerold Belger, memorial plaques on the houses where the writers lived and worked — all this is part of the city’s literary history. Today, the literary history of Almaty continues through contemporary authors.
