UNESCO-Cosmopolis Polyglot Literary Residency in Odesa

Odesa UNESCO City of Literature in partnership with Ukrainian Cosmopolis, are inviting applications for the Summer 2026 Odesa Polyglot Literary Residency. Writers are invited to spend up to one month (September) in Odessa — Ukraine’s great Black Sea port and one of Europe’s most singular literary cities. 

About the Residency:

Odesa's sea light, courtyards, grand staircases, and noisy streets have fed generations of writers since Babel. Today, in the shadow of war, the city continues to write, publish, translate, and defend free letters. It remains a place where language matters, writing remains necessary, conversation lives, and literature belongs in public.

Residents will stay in privately rented apartments in Odesa’s historic centre, allowing them to experience the city as residents rather than visitors. It is designed as a time of creative freedom. Residents are free to use the time as they choose: to write, read, research, translate in exchange for modest participation in the city's literary life: one or two public events, and a short reflective text afterward.

What is Offered:

● Travel support from Europe up to €350 

● Accommodation in the historic centre 

● A €500 stipend 

● Health insurance

● Introductions to Odesa's writers, publishers, translators, scholars, artists and other Cosmopolis Fellows and Residents

● Opportunities to participate in public literary events

Additional Information: 

Application Deadline:  20 July 2026

Writing samples may be submitted in any language. Whenever possible, they will be read by writers that speak that language. Do, however, provide translations of work not written in English, Ukrainian or Russian. Submissions will be judged by the Odesa City of Literature Office together with members of Ukrainian Cosmopolis.  

Queries may be sent to odesacityofliterature@gmail.com