Four writers have been selected in response to January’s open call
We are pleased to announce the selected writers for the Writer-in-Residence Programme 2026, hosted by Salzburger Kunstverein and realised in partnership with ArtReview.
Following the phenomenal response to January’s open call, our jury selected four writers whose voices stood out for their distinctiveness, verve and engagement with the conceptual framework of ‘CAPTCHA Realism’.
Congratulations to the Writers-in-Residence 2026:
Hana Elhaddad, Sharmilla Ganesan, Olga Hohmann, Eshwari.
We look forward to the texts that will emerge from their time in Salzburg.
Hana Elhaddad is an art writer and researcher based in Cairo, Egypt. She runs The Arab Art Review, a single-author critical platform navigating the Arabic-speaking world, and Barra, a project space currently operating in Cairo that experiments with exhibiting contemporary art. Hana is particularly interested in walking and embodied seeing as ways of approaching art, writing, and curation (and the world). Alongside her platform, her criticism and reviews have appeared in Monocle and Mada Masr.
Eshwari is a word wrangler, writing sometimes to stay grounded and other times to get delightfully lost. A part-time blog sleuth, she is endlessly curious about films and the layered lives of women. Drawn to work around education and community engagement, she believes storytelling can quietly bring both to life. Her work has previously appeared on Agents of Ishq, Open Dosa, The Ambedkarian Chronicle, Neralu, Goya, Luru, and elsewhere. She was also shortlisted for the Toto Awards for Creative Writing and longlisted for the Briefly Write Poetry Prize (2026).
Sharmilla Ganesan is a Malaysian writer and critic with nearly 20 years’ experience covering culture. Her work explores identity, migration, and the politics of representation. Her cultural criticism and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, South China Morning Post, ASEF culture360, ArtsEquator, and New Naratif. She was a radio presenter with BFM 89.9, where she created and hosted Malaysia’s first arts review radio show, as well as programmes on current affairs, film, and books. She was also a features journalist with The Star newspaper, where she specialised in arts, books, and film, and wrote an award-winning literary column. She has covered major international arts events and interviewed prominent cultural figures worldwide. She co-founded The Cipta Seni Incubator, an artist development programme for Malaysian creatives. Sharmilla was a Fulbright/Humphrey Fellow, Asia Journalism Fellow, and alum of the Global Cultural Relations Programme and Mekong Cultural Hub Fellowship.
Olga Hohmann writes essays, prose miniatures and meandering texts that are intended to be read aloud. In an almost musical form, she combines more or less fictional narratives with found footage, which combine to form a rhythmic murmur. She recently performed at Schinkel Pavillon Berlin, Fondation Beyeler, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Julia Stoschek Foundation Düsseldorf, Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster, Kunstverein München, K21 Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Roter Salon Volksbühne Berlin, Archivio Conz and was part of Mangrove Sunset at Martin Groupius Bau Berlin (2023). She also performed in the framework of Texte zur Kunst at Berlin’s Silent Green. In 2022 The Overview Effect was released in collaboration with Textem Verlag Hamburg. In 2023 she gave her prose debut with Korbinian Verlag Berlin: In deinem rechten Auge wohnt der Teufel. In October 2024 she presented Stressed/Desserts in collaboration with Windpark Verlag Frankfurt.
