Tartu City of Literature international residency program which was put on hold for a couple of years due to the pandemic, will continue, with Ukrainian poet, prose writer, and journalist Olena Huseinova being the first guest this year.

Huseinova (born in 1979) will reside in Tartu in April and May. She lives and works in Kyiv as a radio journalist and producer. She earned a Master's degree in Philology from Kyiv Mohyla Academy in 2003 and debuted as a poet in 2004, soon winning a prestigious literature award for young authors. Her first poetry collection, Open Rider, was published in 2012, followed by Superheroes in 2014. She has also published short prose in journals. In Tartu, she plans to work on a book about the Ukrainian writer and translator Hrytsko Hryhorenko (born  Oleksandra Sudovshchykova-Kosach, 1867-1924), who lived in Tartu from 1891-1901 and published her first collection of short stories here.

The open call, announced in January, brought 31 applications from writers and translators from Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. The decision was made by a four-member commission, consisting of Berk Vaher (Estonian Writers' Union), Krista Ojasaar (Estonian Literary Museum), Janika Kronberg (Karl Ristikivi Society), and Marja Unt (Estonian Literature Society).

Tartu City of Literature international residency program, which is intended for writers and translators of Estonian literature into other languages, began in 2017. Each residency period lasts for two months, and the competition is announced twice a year. The residency is one of the largest globally-oriented initiatives in Tartu's UNESCO City of Literature action plan, which helps to broaden the international dimension of the local literary scene, create new cultural ties, and provides residents with the opportunity to draw inspiration from the local environment and culture. Huseinova is the sixth guest in the program, following Slovenian writer Andrej Tomažin, Irish writer and cultural critic Darran Anderson, Hungarian writer Gabi Csutak, American poet Ron Whitehead, and English writer Andy Willoughby.