General Information | Submission Guidelines | Eligibility
2025 Fellows & Mentors
- Applicants must be at least 21 years of age as of the application deadline.
- Applicant must currently reside in the U.S. or a U.S. Territory and meet one of the below criteria on the date of the application deadline to be eligible to apply:
- U.S. Citizen
- Legal Permanent Status (LPS), or any subsequent categories designated by the U.S. authorities as conferring similar enhanced status upon non-citizens living in the United States legally able to work in the U.S.
- Miami Book Fair at Miami Dade College does not sponsor any visas for working in the U.S.
- Stipend for fellows will be subject to the completion of IRS Form W-9, including a valid ITIN or SSN.
- Please note: By law Miami Book Fair must report cash prizes awarded to individuals to the Internal Revenue Service. If individuals have a Social Security Number (SSN) or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), they will receive a 1099.
- Applicants must not be currently enrolled as a degree-seeking student by the time the fellowship begins.
- Applicants must not have published in any genre a book-length work, have a book under contract, or be negotiating a contract either in the United States or abroad by the time the fellowship begins. Contracts received while in residence are fine and do not affect an individual’s fellowship status. You may be asked to disclose any submissions still pending at time of acceptance and/or the start of the fellowship.
- It is fine to have published excerpts in magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks, but the manuscript in its entirety must not have been previously published (including self-publications and e-books). If applicable, include with your manuscript an acknowledgments page for all prior publications.
- Previously awarded fellows may not apply. Previous applicants who were not awarded a fellowship are encouraged to apply again.
- Applicants must submit a proposal for a book-length manuscript-in-progress in English that can feasibly be completed within the yearlong fellowship program. Proposals must be for a manuscript-in-progress of original work in English by a single author. Translations are not eligible.
- Applicants for the Emerging Writer Fellowships for Prose may submit either fiction or nonfiction.
- Must be able to travel to and live in Miami, Florida, for the duration of the 12-month fellowship, excluding necessary travel.
- Because the goal of this program is to provide fellows with uninterrupted time and space to complete their manuscripts, applicants should not plan to hold full-time employment during the fellowship year.
- Close friends, relatives, students, and former students of mentors are excluded from this opportunity. Likewise, current Miami Dade College and Miami Book Fair advisory board members, staff, and teaching artists are excluded, as are members of their immediate families. If any of the selected applicants fall under these categories they will be disqualified, and a replacement will be chosen from among the finalists. Acquaintance and participation in a workshop taught by a mentor should not be a disqualifying factor, so long as the manuscript sample is not recognizable to the mentor. Anyone wondering if they might be a “close friend” of the above mentioned probably is.
- Miami Book Fair at Miami Dade College does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status. Please refer to Miami Dade College’s non-discrimination statement HERE.
The Miami Book Fair Emerging Writer Fellowships program is supported by The Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for Jewish Stories, the Green Family Foundation, the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Tristarr LLC, Amazon Literary Partnership, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Department of State Division of Arts and Culture.
