(GHENT, N.Y.) – A distinguished group of 10 writers currently in residence at Writers Omi at Ledig House, a retreat for writers and translators, will read and share their works with a public audience on Saturday, October 18, 2014, at 5pm at the Visitors Center at Art Omi, located at 1405 County Route 22 in Ghent. The reading is free and open to the public; guests are invited to an informal barbeque, for which donations are encouraged, following the reading.

Since its founding in 1992, Writers Omi has hosted hundreds of authors and translators, representing more than 50 countries to select residencies of two weeks to two months to live and work in the Hudson Valley. Hailing from all over the world, the work of these residents spans the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation.

This year Omi is excited to host writers from all over the globe, whose cumulative credits include work published in the Paris Review, the New York Times, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. This season’s residents also include a Swiss poet and literary critic, an Australian writer who was shortlisted for the 2012 Barbara Jefferis Award and Ned Kelly Award, and a literary translator who has translated works by John Updike and William Faulkner, among others.

At a recent informal reading held at Omi for members, current residents read poetry in both their native languages (which ranged from Portuguese to the not-widely-heard Catalan) and then collaborated and communicated with fellow residents to create English translations.

Says DW Gibson, director of Writers Omi, “The residents this fall bring an amazing range of talent and experience — from some of the most exciting up and coming writers around the world to some of the most accomplished writers with decades of publications. I’m really excited to introduce them all to New York.”

The writers reading on October 18 are Natasa Dragni? (Croatia/Germany, Fiction), Joan Michelson (UK, Poetry/Fiction), Norbert Gstrein (Austria, Fiction), Caroline Brothers (UK/Australia/France, Fiction/Nonfiction), Rachel Cantor (US, Fiction), Claire Corbett (Australia, Fiction), Daniele Bernardi (Switzerland, Poetry/Nonfiction), Neva Micheva (Bulgaria, Translation), Susanne Hoebel (UK, Translation), and Catherine Lacey (US, Fiction).

Full biographies of all the writers in residence can be found online at Writers Omi.

Since its founding in 1992, Omi has hosted hundreds of authors and translators, representing more than fifty countries in the rural setting of Ghent, New York. The colony’s strong international emphasis reflects the spirit of cultural exchange that is part of Ledig’s enduring legacy. The program was named for German publisher, Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, who was noted for his passionate commitment to quality in literature. His authors included Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner, Yukio Mishima, Jean-Paul Sartre, Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Toni Morrison, and Thomas Pynchon. Writers Omi welcomes published writers and translators of every type of literature. International, cultural, and creative exchange is a foundation of our mission, and a wide distribution of national background is an important part of our selection process. Guests may select a residency of one week to two months, gathering at about ten at a time to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. The Visitors Program brings noted guests from the New York publishing community including editors, agents, and book scouts who are invited to share dinner and conversation on both creative and practical subjects, offering insight into the workings of the publishing industry, and introductions to some of its key professionals.

Omi International Arts Center seeks to foster an environment of creative exploration and exchange, professional opportunity and exposure, and a stylistically and culturally diverse community for creative artists from around the world. Through our programs and resulting public events – including our Residency Programs, The Fields Sculpture Park, Architecture Omi, and Education Omi – Omi contributes to a vibrant arts culture locally, regionally, and internationally.