Emerging Writer Fellowships / 2021 Finalists & Honorable Mentions

The Emerging Writer Fellowships program is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that attracts an overwhelmingly gifted group of fantastic writers. We’d like to acknowledge – and introduce them to you – here:

FICTION

Rahad Abir
Ameena Goes to America

Isabelle Barany
 God Will Protect Us

Kim Coleman Foote
 Coleman Hill

Phedra Deonarine
 The Douen King of the Mangrove and Other Stories

Opal Gayle
 The Taste of Ashes

Angela F. Qian
The Girl with the Double Eyelids

Ashley Richardson
 Far Cry From A Woman

Zachary Solomon
 ZELNIK

Tyriek White
The Killing Fields

POETRY

Helene Achanzar
Lavender

J. Allen
 Black Calamus: Poems

Moncho Alvarado
 Greyhound Americans

Yasmine Ameli
 My Body, the Conduit

Joshua Burton
 Grace Engine

Bianca Garcia
 Carne Cruda

Clemonce Heard
 Greenwood

Frank Johnson
 Literal Dope

Emily Lee Luan
I Watch the Boughs

Natasha Rao
 Cusp of Blue

Sharanya Sharma
 Prayers Shrieked from the Pistol’s Mouth

Daniella Toosie-Watson
Jesufrito

NONFICTION

Nayana Abeysinghe
Trincomalee: A Memoir

Danny Thanh Nguyen
After the Honeymoon Phase

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Joanna Acevedo, Charlieland

Elinam Agbo, Everyone Here Loves You

Chad B. Anderson, A History of Rivers

Timea Balogh, Ten Moons Under the Balaton

Jana Banin, The Ones Who Saw Him

Matthew Blasi, All the Way Back

Cora Bresciano, The Taste of Pomegranates: In Which Persephone Speaks Her Truth

Beatrice Bridglall, Vir

Pierce Clifford Brown, Edgeland

Javier Ernesto Castano, Blizzard: Freedom from Hell on the Chain

Imani Cezanne, On My Way

Wo Chan, Togetherness

India Choquette, Very Bright Green

Frankie Concepcion, Can You Stand to Stay

Cristina Correa, Sepulchritude

Margarita Cruz, The Dirt

Michael A. de Armas, Beautiful Girl, Ancient Thief

Dana De Greff, Everyday Mysticism

Joël Díaz, Strange Oxygen

Christa Drangle, Iris

Christina Drill, The Most Anonymous State and Other Stories

Jenzo DuQue, The Rest of Us

Susan Falco, Night World

KaToya Ellis Fleming, Finding Frank

Sarah Fuchs, Safari Njema

Melanie Futorian, RUB

Courtney C. Gambrell, My Ancestors’ Cry

Naiti Gámez, All Things Soft and Yielding

Roy Graham, Offshore

David Grandouiller, I Am Not the Same Everywhere

Leah Griesmann, Stripped

Audrey Hall, Dinosaur Adjacent: Poems

Neal Hammons, Masculine Touchstones of Twentieth-Century Cinema

Ashley Harris, For those that created science

Jaclyn Harte, Lay the Real Thing on Me

Dylan Evers Hawkins, Untitled

Rose Himber Howse, Muscadine Wine

David Hutcheson, Clinch

Shakarean Hutchinson, The Body Was There

Jared Jackson, Locals

Randy James, Suddenly, Summer Rain

Anita Olivia Koester, Imperfect Map of Griefland

Nancy Kotkin, Dances of Our Lives

Gabriel Louis, Proverbs

Amy Lyons, Marginalia and Other Stories

John Maher, Aeneas Flees Burning Troy

Meher Manda, Did Your Mother Teach You Anything?

Jane Marchant, An Extraordinarily Condensed Pocket Encyclopedia of Botany

Greg Marshall, Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It

Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, Cowboy Park

Forester McClatchey, The Sculptor and The Painter

Charles Ramsay McCrory, Mobile Home

Adam McCulloch, The Silver Trail

Caitlin McGill, Dogs Run Wild Here

Monique McIntosh, The Bank of Paradise

Margaret Meehan, A Beautiful Wife is Suddenly Dead

Paula Mirando, Gangbangers

Stephen Narain, Nirvana

Alejandro Nodarse, The Butcher’s Men

Kelsey Norris, This Here Place

Maddie Norris, The Wet Wound: An Elegy

Dinkinish O’Connor, Black Gums: Blood on the Vines

Theresa Okokon, The Okokon Family Orchestra

Jennifer Popa, Playthings

Stephanie Pushaw, Earthquake Weather

Malorie Reid, All the Things Unsaid

Chelli Riddiough, CODA

Christa Romanosky, Ways to Light the Water on Fire

Giovannai Rosa, The Puerto Rican House

Marina Rubin, Snuffbox

Rasheeda Saka, Still Breath

Julian Santiago, Amber Babylon

Samyak Shertok, No Rhododendron

Sandra Sidi, Finger of God

Macey Sidlasky, To See Her

Viccy Simon, Stepping Sideways

K.C. Sinclair, The Local Astronauts

Jeneé Skinner, Where the Clouds Known Our Names

Andrea Slodowicz, The Polish Wife

Natasha Soto, The Center of the World

Caitlin F. Thornbrugh, Riparian: Where Water Meets Land

Megan Walsh, Undercurrent

Mekiya Walters, ASHES, ASHES

Hannah Rose Webster, What Follows

Keagan Wheat, Viaticum

Hannah Whiteman, Rites of Want

Ada Zhang, The Sorrows of Others

The Miami Book Fair Emerging Writer Fellowships are supported by The Jorge M. Peréz Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation.