October 14th, 2021

Bavarian Minister of Arts Bernd Sibler announces grant recipients for two-month stay in Canada: “Our fellows are forging links between cultures”.

The author Ulrike Anna Bleier and the translator Michaela Meßner will receive the residency scholarship in the context of the Bavaria-Quebec exchange program. This was announced today in Munich by Minister of Arts Bernd Sibler. The exchange is aimed at writers, graphic novel artists and literary translators.

Ulrike Anna Bleier has already arrived in Quebec and writes about her experience on the Externer Link: Mit Klick auf diesen Link verlassen Sie die Webseite www.bayern.de blog of the Literaturportal Bayern. Michaela Meßner was selected for a stay in 2022. The Bavarian scholarship holders can expect a stay at the house of literature (“Maison de la littérature”) in Quebec City, which is an inspiring centre and hub of a far-reaching literary network.

In return, the Quebec authors Nassira Belloula and Anne-Marie Sicotte will come to the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Bavaria. Nassira Belloula has already arrived in Schwandorf-Fronberg in mid-September and Anne-Marie Sicotte is planning her stay for next spring.

“I am very pleased that we can finally welcome our Canadian guest to the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus,” said Minister of State Sibler.

In addition to the Bavarian State Chancellery and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts, the State of Bavaria Montreal Office and other partners of the State of Bavaria in Quebec are supporting the exchange: the City of Quebec and the Institut Canadien de Québec, the Ministry of International Relations and the Francophonie, as well as the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Quebec Government Representation in Munich and Berlin. In Bavaria, the exchange is organized by the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus Schwandorf-Fronberg, and in Quebec by the writers’ association Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

from left to right: Ulrike Anna Bleier, Michaela Meßner, Nassira Belloula, Anne-Marie Sicotte