Francesca Gavin  

Writer in residence August 2026


T-YARD Writers Residency welcomes Francesca Gavin as our eighth writer-in-residence in August 2026. Francesca Gavin has a multi-faceted career working as an editor, writer, curator and consultant. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of EPOCH (www.epoch-review.com), an annual publication looking at connections between history and the now. She is also the art editor at Twin magazine, as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times, Cura, Hero and other publications. Gavin also works as Director of Visual Arts at non-profit Murmur, working at the intersection of visual art and climate action. Gavin was the co-curator of Manifesta11 in Zurich and has created numerous exhibitions at institutions and galleries including The Art of Mushrooms (Fundação de Serralves, Porto), Mushrooms (Somerset House, London), The Dark Cube (Palais de Tokyo, Paris), and The New Psychedelia (Mu, Eindhoven). She is also the author of 12 books on art and visual culture including 'The Art of Mushrooms', ‘100 New Artists’, 'Watch This Space' and ‘Final Copy’. Her monthly radio show 'Rough Version' on NTS Radio has been running for 9 years, focusing on the relationship between art and music. The second volume of interview from the show was published by At Last Books in May 2026.  www.francescagavin.com


Photo by: Kane Hulse

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim 

Writer in residence October 2025


T-YARD Writers Residency welcomes Abubakar Adam Ibrahim as our seventh writer in residence in October 2025. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Jos, 1979) is a Nigerian writer with a background in journalism. His works interrogate memory, trauma, and the intersection of love and hate. He is the author of four books of fiction, including his latest, When We Were Fireflies, which was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Awards and the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature (Africa’s biggest literature prize), which he won with his debut novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms, in 2016. He was also awarded the Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling for his non-fiction published in Granta. His works have been translated into German, French, Tamil, and other European languages. He founded the Flame Tree Foundation for Creativity and Media Literacy and is completing his doctorate in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa, US, where he is also a special guest of the Iowa Writers’ Programme for 2025.

Gisela Casimiro 

Writer in residence February 2025


T-YARD Writers Residency welcomes Gisela Casimiro as our sixth writer in residence in February 2025. Gisela Casimiro (b. 1984, Guinea-Bissau) is a Portuguese writer, artist, performer, speaker and activist, based in Lisbon. Casimiro works on identity, the body, memory, trauma, healing, anti-racism, post-colonialism, and everyday life. Her practice also involves curation, photography, installation, collage and sound.  She has a degree in Portuguese and English Studies from FCSH/NOVA. She is the author of Erosão(poetry), Giz (poetry), Casa com Árvores Dentro (play, directed by Cláudia Semedo), Estendais(nonfiction) and Privilégio Negro(antiracist manual, upcoming 2024). Casimiro translated Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider into Portuguese and wrote its preface. Her work has been featured in several national and international magazines and anthologies, and translated into Spanish, German, Mandarin and Turkish. Jornal de Letras did a profile on her writing. She coordinates the book club at Batalha Cinema Center with Teresa Coutinho. Casimiro is a founding UNA - União Negra das Artes member.



Photo by Filipe Ferreira.

Han Bo 

Writer in residence October 2024


T-YARD Writers Residency welcomes Han Bo as our fifth writer in residence in October 2024. Han Bo (China, 1973) is a Poet, artist, novelist, playwright and curator with a background in international politics and mass communication. He lives and works in Shanghai. He is an honorary writer of the University of Iowa of USA.  Han Bo has published Chinese poetry collection "Borrowing Deep Heart"，"The Western Days", "Temple of Arrival and Departure" and "Shanghai Wall", English poetry collection "The China Eastern Railway", Russian poetry collection "A banquet of knots", German poetry collection "China box", novel "A life or suite with three bedrooms, one living room and one dining room", and 7 travel literature books including “Following in the footsteps of Dionysus” and “Saints and Graffiti : Travel through heterotopia”. He won the Liu li’an Poetry Award in 1998, the DJS-Poetry East West Awards for Chinese & International Poets in 2012 and the international literary translation award of “Asymptote Journal” In 2019.