La Maison de la Poésie de Nantes

Residency brief

The mission of the Maison de la Poésie de Nantes (Nantes Poetry House) is to encourage contemporary poetry practices. Their library is the second-largest contemporary poetry fund in France and can be accessed by the residents. Once a year, in the fall, they organize the “MidiMinuitPoésie” festival in various cultural spaces around the city. They also hold regular poetry evenings called “Poèmes en cavale”.

Established in 1986, the Maison de la Poésie de Nantes is a truly multicultural institution working with many local, national and international structures, encouraging interactions between poets from around the world. Since 2017, it has started hosting international residencies with the aim of getting the French audience acquainted with diverse poetic traditions.

The specificity of this residency is that the selected applicant will work with a French translator on an exclusive translation of one of his/her texts. La Maison de la Poésie de Nantes will try to interest a publisher or a journal for the publication of this translation.

  • Thematic focus Poetry
  • Location Nantes (Pays de la Loire)
  • DatesJanuary 2026 or April 2026
  • Length of stay 1 month

Our Space

The sixth biggest city in France, Nantes stands out by its cultural life and the profusion of artistic events all year long. The Atlantic coast can be reached in less than an hour and Paris in two. The author will stay in the lovely neighbourhood of “Butte Sainte-Anne”, close to the city center and Nantes Island. A bakery, a supermarket and coffee shops are within walking distance, as well as several transportation modes to move quickly throughout the city.

Meena Kandasamy

Author and poet

For twenty years, across three collections—Touch, Ms Militancy, and Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You—I have written into the intersections of caste, gender, self-determination and resistance. These poems carry the weight of struggles that transcend borders, and I believe they could resonate powerfully with French readers.

If I am lucky, I dream of working closely with a French translator who can capture not just the meaning but the militancy of my verses—the anger, the tenderness, the defiance that pulses through each line. Translation is transformation, and I want to discover what my poetry becomes when it breathes in French. If that collaboration proves elusive initially, I am equally committed to using this residency to write new work, to let the landscape and its revolutionary spirit infuse my poetry with fresh urgency and possibility.

Meena Kandasamy is a poet and writer based in Chennai. Over twenty years, her writing has addressed state and structural violence. Her corpus includes three poetry collections, Touch (2006), Ms Militancy (2010) and Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You (2023), as well as three novels, The Gypsy Goddess (2014), the Women's Prize short-listed When I Hit You (2017) and Exquisite Cadavers (2019). In 2022, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was also awarded the PEN Hermann Kesten Prize for her writing and work as a 'fearless fighter for democracy, human rights and the free word.'

Past Laureates

Second Edition (2024 - 2025)
Rohini Kejriwal Poet