The next call for applications for the biennial residency program is expected to be launched in early summer 2025.
About the programm
Work Grant awarded by the "Kulturstiftung Rhein-Neckar-Kreis e.V." in cooperation with Heidelberg UNESCO City of Literature for authors from UNESCO Cities of Literature in the “Commandant’s House Dilsberg”, at Dilsberg Fortress, in Neckargemünd (approximately 14 km from Heidelberg). The building served as the Commandant’s quarters of the Dilsberg garrison in the 17th century. The former Commandant’s House was acquired 1996 and renovated by the Rhein-Neckar-District. Since then the "Commandant’s House Dilsberg" has been a center for the promotion of art and culture: exhibitions, chamber music concerts, open-air concerts, readings, symposia and discussion rounds enrich the cultural life of the region. Here, art, music, and literature grant holders find a creative work sphere. The duration of the biennial scholarship is 3 months with residence obligation in the Commandant’s House Dilsberg.
2024 from April to June, the Indonesian writer and literary translator Anton Kurnia from UNESCO City of Literature Jakarta has been our highly esteemed guest. He writes short stories, novels, essays and narrative nonfiction. Since 1998, his works have been published by various journals and websites in Indonesia and abroad. His short story collection “Insomnia” (2004) has been translated into English, Arabic and Spanish. He has published three collections of short stories, six collections of essays on literature and culture, and a novel. In addition, he wrote a travelogue about his travels to various countries, “Many Roads to Prague” (2022). His first novel “Majnun” (2022) is a love story mixed with historical and cultural elements. “Nostalgia: Peculiar Stories about Love and Death” (2023) is his latest collection of short stories. He also translated many literary works from English to Indonesian, including novels by Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell and Salman Rushdie, and had a long career as a book publishing executive. He is often invited to take part in international literary festivals and book events, including the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali (2009), ASEAN Literary Festival in Jakarta (2016), ASEAN Writers Symposium in Laos (2018), Jakarta International Literary Festival (2019), Invitation Program at the Frankfurt Book Fair (2019), and the First Forum of Asian Countries' Writers in Kazakhstan (2019). He was selected to take part in the Melbourne Virtual Writers Residency in 2022. Currently he also serves as Chair of the Literature Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.
Former Residency (Spring 2020/2022)
The Australian children's book author and illustrator Judith Rossell was the literature fellow of the Rhine-Neckar Cultural Foundation and the UNESCO City of Literature Heidelberg in 2020/2022. On 1 February 2020 she took up the three-month writer-in-residence at the Dilsberg Commandant's House. Due to the Covid-19-pandely she had to interrupt her residency and returned in spring 2022.
The author and PhD astrophysicist Pippa Goldschmidt from Edinburgh was the first joint literature fellow of the Kulturstiftung Rhein-Neckar-Kreis e.V. and Heidelberg UNESCO City of Literature. On February 1, 2018, she had begun a three-month residency at Kommandantenhaus Dilsberg.
