Artists in residence at libraries

Rui Portulez works as a cultural agent. He started out as a voice talent and radio host, and his passion for music and literature led him to pursue many different paths, from curating festivals to directing documentaries and writing. Later this year, he will publish his first auto-fiction book, as well as a translation of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.

After winning the Portuguese DGLAB Poetry Grant, he is researching and beginning the process of writing a new poetry book mostly about fictional literary “heroines and heroes,” update and poetically reimagined through a critical, ironic, good-humored, and political lens. These are the main characteristics of his work.

During this residence, Pippi Longstocking is one of the characters that will be deepened and featured in the book with a dedicated poem. And maybe there are more Swedish heroes and heroines that can be discovered in Alingsås.

Rimantas Kmita is a Lithuanian novelist, playwright, and literary scholar. He holds a PhD in humanities, works as a researcher at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, and teaches creative writing at Vilnius University. His novel “Pietinia kronikas” (2016, Tyto alba) received wide critical acclaim and is considered one of the significant Lithuanian prose works of its decade. His plays have been staged at the Lithuanian National Theatre and the Šiauliai State Drama Theatre, and his one-act play *Dance, Edita, Dance* was translated into English and produced at The Chain Theatre in New York.

During his residency, he will work on a new play about Žemaitė, a major nineteenth-century Lithuanian writer, focusing on her final years in America and her unspoken love for a much younger man. The play asks whether one can stop longing for what cannot be had – if writing is the only way to survive it.

Ivana Lukić is a Serbian psychologist and award-winning author for young adults. In her writing, she combines psychological expertise with many years of experience working with teenagers. Alongside writing and her work in a secondary school, she facilitates creative psychology workshops for children and young people.

She is the author of six books exploring identity, mental health, and the complexities of growing up in contemporary society.

During her residency, she will work on a new novel about the ways adolescents create intimacy and connection through messaging and digital communication. Through the story of two teenagers, the novel explores loneliness, belonging, and the search for closeness across both physical and digital spaces.

Lina Matiukaitė is a Lithuanian children’s book author, journalist, and communications specialist. Born in a small town and grew up surrounded by nature and a close-knit community, which shaped her creativity and worldview. In 2016, she published her first book,  Number Tales: If the Moon Were Zero, marking the beginning of her career as an author. Today, she has written more than thirty books, combining humour, engaging stories, colourful illustrations, and educational value. Her best-known titles include Number Tales: More Than a Pirate and The City Detective. During her residency in Sweden, Lina plans to write the second part of her story for young teenagers, exploring Swedish culture and mythology.

Jonas Asp is a Swedish writer, freelance writer and librarian, born in 1986 and based in Stockholm. In August 2025, he made his literary debut with the novel Landet, published by Ellerströms. The book was nominated for the Katapult Prize 2026, awarded by the Swedish Writers’ Union for the year’s best literary debut.

As a librarian, Jonas works with creative writing programmes for young people, and in the autumn he will begin teaching at Biskops Arnö’s writers’ school.

During his residency in Tanum, Jonas will work on his current novel project, a political relationship novel set in Dalarna and the Sundsvall region and spanning thirty years, from 1966 to 1986.