IWP Between the Lines reading with Rochelle Potkar, Vladimir Poleganov, Tariro Ndoro, and Senka Maric

The University of Iowa’s Between the Lines Program presents Peace and the Writing Experience: Four Readings with visiting instructors Rochelle Potkar, Vladimir Poleganov, Tariri Ndoro, and Senka Marić.

Rochelle Potkar is a prize-winning poet, author, and screenwriter based in Mumbai. She is the author of the poetry books Four Degrees of Separation and Paper Asylum, which was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2020, and the short story collection Bombay Hangovers. Her prize-winning manuscript of poetry Coins in Rivers was released in April 2024 by Hachette India. Co-curator of the Glass House Poetry Festival 2024 in Bangalore, she is an alumna of Iowa’s International Writing Program (2015), and was a Charles Wallace Writer’s fellow at the University of Stirling in 2017.

Vladimir Poleganov is a Bulgarian writer, translator, and screenwriter. He is the author of the short story collection, The Deconstruction of Thomas S, the novel The Other Dream, which was winner of the 2017 Helikon Award, and the 2024 book, Past Continuous. His short story “The Birds” was featured in Dalkey Archive Press’ anthology Best European Fiction 2016. Winner of the Association of Bulgarian Translators Prize (2020) and the Krastan Dyankov Award for translation (2022), he participated in the UI’s International Writing Program in 2016.

Tariro Ndoro is a genre-bending Zimbabwean writer of short fiction and poetry. Her debut poetry collection, Agringada: Like a Gringa, Like a Foreigner was the recipient of a National Arts Merit Award for Outstanding Poetry Book, and her most recent novel manuscript was longlisted for the 2023 James Currey Prize for African Literature. She was a Spring 2022 Fellow of the International Writing Program and a participant in the University of Johannesburg’s inaugural JIAS Writing Workshop. Tariro is currently a doctoral fellow in Public Health.

Senka Marić is a poet, novelist, essayist, editor from Bosnia-Herzegovina. She is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Do smrti naredne [Until the next death] (2016), and the novels Kintsugi tijela (2018) and Gravitacije (2021), translated into English as Body Kintsugi and Gravities, as well as into several other languages. The former received the 2018 Meša Selimović Award for best novel, the English PEN Translates Award 2022, and was shortlisted for the 2023 EBRD Literature Prize. Gravitacije won the 2022 Štefica Cvek Award for feminist writing. Marić often participates in European literary events, teaches writing workshops, and is the editor-in-chief of the online literary magazine Strane.ba. Her participation in the 2023 International Writing Program was made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.