Khatuna Tskhadadze
English PEN Writers at Risk Residency 2025

Khatuna Tskhadadze © Forbes

Khatuna Tskhadadze

We were delighted to welcome Khatuna Tskhadadze, a literary translator, scholar, and President of PEN Georgia, for our 2025 Literature Residency in partnership with English PEN.

Khatuna's acclaimed translations include The Complete Cosmicomics, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, and The Path to the Nest of Spiders by Italo Calvino; The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, and The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco; Ragazzi di Vita by Pier Paolo Pasolini; and Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi.

She has also brought into Georgian the works of Luigi Pirandello, Cesare Pavese, Melania Mazzucco, Elena Ferrante, Maggie Nelson, and many other authors. Working from both Italian and English, she has received multiple literary honours, including the SABA Literary Award (2015, 2017), the GALA Award (2011), and the Machabeli Prize for Translation (2023).
Since arriving here, I’ve often thought about those who came before – about the lives they left or fled. One thing is certain: all of them, in some way, thought of home –the one you don’t choose, yet is yours alone. I feel at home in this beautiful, peaceful place, with the park’s green framed by the windows and the kindness of those below. I, too, think of home: of the battle we are in, and the uncertainty it brings. I am deeply grateful to the organisations and people who have welcomed me, giving me the chance to see home from afar: at peace, more detached, clearer in mind, and to reflect on what 'home' truly means.
Khatuna Tskhadadze

Follow us