Bogdan Cosa from Romania is the 2026 selected holder of this year’s edition of the ”Sharing Future” Artist in residence scholarship. His artistic project idea was selected from amongst more than 20 truly inspiring artistic applications from Europe, Asia and the Americas. The jury was impressed by the Romanian writer’s idea to develop his new novel, provisionally titled ‘Toxic’, in Ruse. The story is set in the early years of the new millennium, in Transylvania. The protagonists are several boys left in the care of their fathers after their mothers left to work abroad, in the hope that by the time their children finish school, they will have managed to settle down and bring them over, offering them a better life. These men, once workers at an extremely toxic dye factory, survive for a time by dismantling what remains of it. In their quest to escape the pain and, in some cases, the violent behaviour of their fathers, the boys find solace in the gruelling, unpredictable training sessions led by the local football coach. The coach himself, Mustafa, has been abandoned by his wife and is estranged from his own son, from whom he has heard nothing for years. Gradually, with the help of these children with no one to look after them, Mustafa transforms from a middle-aged alcoholic into a benevolent father figure. This novel is presented as an unconventional project that seeks to rethink the deeply ideologised debate on the role of gender within the historical and socio-economic context of Eastern Europe.

Bogdan Cosa is a Romanian writer and translator. He graduated in literature from the University of Bucharest, after which he taught there. He is now devoted entirely to writing. His portfolio includes novels, short stories, poetry, essays, children’s books, critical texts for art catalogues, as well as three screenplays. His latest novel, a national bestseller and winner of Romania’s top prize for fiction, is now in its second edition, and its translation into German is currently underway. Bogdan Cosa translates contemporary English-language fiction and non-fiction into Romanian, whilst his own works have been published in literary magazines and newspapers across Europe and the United States. He is fluent in English and has a conversational command of German.

The Scholarship, a joint initiative of the Danube Rectors Conference (DRC), and the International Elias Canetti Society is being awarded for the eighth consecutive year under the motto „Sharing future“.