Saubhik De Sarkar, a writer and translator from Alipurduar, has been selected to participate in the well-known Art Omi Writers' Residency in the US next year.

From Bengal, De Sarkar is the sole writer selected this time for the residency programme hosted every year in the US.

He will join the programme in September 2025 and stay there for a couple of months.

Art Omi is an organisation that runs a centre in the Hudson Valley on the north of New York City. It hosts writers and translators for the residency programme where they stay for anywhere between one week and two months to work on their writing, exchange ideas among themselves and interact with experts.

Art Omi also brings in editors, representatives of publishing houses and others concerned for conversations on different collaborative subjects.

“I have received their mail which says I have been selected for Art Omi Residency in 2025. It is indeed a matter of pride for me,” said the 47-year-old writer.

“At residencies, writers, poets and translators from across the world send projects or collaborative projects to juries who make the selections. It is an open competition,” he said.

He pointed out that the residency would provide him with the opportunity to interact with eminent writers and poets from different countries of the globe.

“It is an important opportunity for me,” said De Sarkar.

In 2022, the writer was selected for the Sahitya Akademi award for translating My Father Baliah, a family autobiography on Dalits penned by Telengana author Y.B. Satyanarayana.

In 2023, he also bagged the Bangla Academy award.

Earlier, he had translated a book of poems by Rudramoorthy Cheran, a Tamil poet from Sri Lanka.

“I am confident that the session will help in improving my writing,” said De Sarkar.