Independent publisher Guernica Editions has teamed up with PEN International to launch a virtual writers residency program to support refugee writers and writers living in exile.

The Guernica/PEN International Writers Residency launches next month. The three-month program provides $1,000 each month to the writer in residence, who will be contributing blog posts to Guernica’s website bimonthly. A virtual event with the writer will be held at the end of the residency.

The program grew out of a partnership that developed when the press got in touch with the non-profit about its emergency fund for author Ivan Baidak, who left Ukraine for Canada at the start of the war last year and whose novel (In)visible was published by Guernica in September.

“We have a great partnership, our views are very much aligned,” associate publisher Anna van Valkenburg says of the Guernica-PEN pairing. “We thought, ‘What can we do to support these authors who have to flee their homes, or who are forced out of their homes, whether it’s because of political or environmental reasons or because of risk or danger to their physical or mental health?'”

With the virtual writers residency, van Valkenburg says Guernica hopes writers feel support that goes beyond the financial.

“We want to support writers who don’t have that basic freedom of expression, which is such a crucial thing,” she says. “We would like to support them financially, so that they can keep writing and not worry about basic needs, but also to officially and publicly support them, to say: we stand with you. We stand with your rights.”

The program, which is funded through Ontario Creates, will begin in March. Belarussian poet and translator Hanna Komar has been selected for this year’s residency from a small list of writers PEN International put forward for Guernica to consider.

Hanna Komar (photo courtesy Guernica Editions)

In 2020, Komar was arrested and spent nine days in jail for participating in a peaceful demonstration after the disputed re-election of longtime Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko. Komar left Belarus in 2021 after receiving a Chevening scholarship to study in the U.K., and can’t return to Belarus because of the risks her activism poses. She is currently living in the U.K. and didn’t expect to be selected for the program.

“So much is happening and so many writers having important stories to tell are in exile,” she says. “But I trust that if I was invited, then my story must be meaningful enough and it’s time to tell it.”

Komar says that in addition to the funding, being selected for the residency “is a signal that my voice does matter.”

She is looking forward to sharing her ideas, and having the freedom to write about what she considers important.

“Feeling free (unlearning living in dictatorship) takes practice, and I appreciate a chance to practice it,” she says. “I also hope this platform will amplify Belarusian stories, as we’re now struggling against two dictators and have to work hard to draw attention and help for us to withstand.”

Guernica hopes to continue offering the program once a year, and possibly expanding it, depending on funding. “I’m optimistic that we can do great things with it,” van Valkenburg says. 

Update, February 19: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the circumstances under which Komar left Belarus.