NB! The next call for applications will be announced in January 2026!

Residencies for writers and translators are a rapidly evolving aspect of Tartu City of Literature. Our residency programs aim to enhance international exchange and communication, diversify the local literary scene, and allow local readers, writers, and cultural organisers to become acquainted with new foreign authors and their works. Additionally, we seek to establish enduring connections, fostering a willingness for future collaborations beyond the residency period.

Our goal is to create a nurturing and inspiring environment where writers can focus on their work and generate fresh creative ideas. These programs also enable writers to introduce their work to Estonian readers.

Our first international residency program for writers and translators was launched in 2017.  Since then, Tartu has already hosted more than 20 writers-in-residence within the framework of different programs.

Regular residencies

The main residency program of Tartu City of Literature has two calls every year, with one resident hosted in spring and another in autumn. In addition, a one-month residency designed exclusively for Estonian literature translators has been organised since 2023.  

Other residency projects

Tartu-Norwich writers exchange

Between 2020-2022, Tartu City of Literature and Norwich City of Literature organised a writers' residency exchange to foster connections between their respective literary communities and explore the links between the two cities.  As a result, Tartu poet and novelist Vahur Afanasjev resided in Norwich in March 2020, and Norwich poet Penny Boxall was in residency in Tartu in August 2022. Boxall formed strong connections with local writers and has since visited Tartu frequently, collaborating with local authors, including Tartu City Writer 2024, Maarja Pärtna.

Nordic-Baltic residency programme

Supported by the Nordic Culture Point a residency program for writers from the Nordic and Baltic Cities of Literature was organised between 2023 and 2025, through which five writers came to Tartu: Kristina Sadauskienė and Aušra Kaziliūnaitė from Lithuania, and Ingólfur Eiríksson, Þórdís Helgadóttir and Vala Thorodds from Iceland.

Bring Your Own Utopia residencies

In collaboration with the literature festival Prima Vista and the Tartu 2024 Foundation - as the festival was part of the main programme of European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 -, a special project fostering collaboration between writers and artists from various fields took place. "Bring Your Own Utopia", launched in 2022, invited five writers from Tartu’s sister cities—Heidelberg, Lviv, Manchester, Norwich, and Reykjavik—to spend a 1-month residency in Tartu, partner with local artists and create works themed around utopias and dystopias. The outcome was presented at Prima Vista 2024 “Futures Better and Worse”.
Read more about the project here: https://kirjandusfestival.tartu.ee/sundmused_/tartu-2024-sundmused/too-kaasa-oma-utoopia/
Watch a video of the project here: https://youtu.be/NC75Fu5raMQ?si=gXfpqiFKwnYNkgDh

The residency apartment

The residents are accommodated in the former Karl Ristikivi Museum. Karl Ristikivi (1912–1977) was a renowned Estonian writer whose works are considered among the core texts of 20th-century Estonian prose. The apartment, owned by the City of Tartu and managed by the Estonian Literary Society, was his last residence in Estonia before his exile in Sweden in 1943. The historical atmosphere of the apartment has been preserved, but all modern facilities are available. The gas-heated apartment (bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and an exhibition room dedicated to Ristikivi) is on the first floor of the two-story house in a quiet residential district near the city centre. The administrative support (guidelines for using the facilities in the apartment, providing extra facilities if needed, etc.) is offered by the Estonian Literary Society.