2025 Fellows
Jessica (Jess) Sullivan is a writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her MFA from American University. Her work has appeared in decomp journal, Fiction Writers Review, and elsewhere. When not writing, she is often found reading, going on long walks, baking, or looking at the sky.
Melissa A. Watkins has been a teacher, a singer, a (bad) actress, and an (even worse) translator. She’s lived in 4 different countries, 10 different cities, and countless houses. Now she’s a writer of speculative fiction, essays, and book reviews based in Massachusetts. Since being a Black writer in America still means you usually have to have a day job(or two), she works as a program coordinator in higher education and performs audio description for blind and low-sighted patrons at live theatre and concert productions. Instagram, Threads, Tiktok: @EqualOpportunityReader, BlueSky: @EQReader
Angela Watkins is a Chicago native and serious bookworm who makes it a point to visit libraries or bookstores almost every place she visits. In 2014, she earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and her research background is in African diasporan literature. Her dissertation, titled Mambos, Priestesses, and Goddesses: Spiritual Healing Through Vodou in Black Women’s Narratives of Haiti and New Orleans, put Zora Neale Hurston’s work in conversation with contemporary novels to explore how fiction by black women writers serve as counternarratives to colonialist, racist, stereotypical, misinformed portrayals of African spirituality. She is also an English teacher and began her teaching career as an assistant professor of English at an HBCU. Currently, she teaches Integrated Humanities at an arts high school in New Orleans. To better understand who she is, Angela has been researching her family history, uncovering surprising information about her ancestors and their difficult journeys. The biggest surprise was learning that her ancestry can be traced largely to Nigeria. She grew up sewing by hand but soon, she will be learning how to sew using a sewing machine in hopes of telling some of the stories she’s learned about her family through quilting.
Alonzo Vereen is a graduate of Morehouse College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A recovering editorial assistant, he’s served on editorial teams for Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Matthew McConaughey. Currently, he teaches high school English in Washington DC.
Porsha Stennis is a fiction writer born and raised in Chicago. She received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago and has a B.S. in Psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her short stories and essays have been published in Rize Short Story Anthology, Mamas, Martyrs and Jezebels, midnight & indigo, and online at The Syndrome Magazine. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, taking yoga classes, and is completing her birth and postpartum doula certification.
Charles Stephens is an Atlanta-based writer, and an MFA candidate in fiction at Randolph College. His work has been supported by Tin House, VONA, Periplus, The Hambidge Center, and Roots.Wounds.Words. Instagram: @charlsdotsteph , BlueSky: @charlesdotsteph
Sharda Sekaran is an emerging writer, longtime human rights advocate, and music obsessive native New Yorker currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sharda has spent over two decades leading national and international initiatives to shift narratives around human rights, drug policy, and economic inequality. She co-founded a non-profit organization, Partners for Dignity and Rights, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Sharda’s writing has been published in Ebony, Colorlines, HuffPost, Filter, Mass Appeal, ATTN:, Al Jazeera, Nonprofit Quarterly, CNN.com, and Brown Girl Magazine’s anthology UNTOLD. She developed her craft through workshops with VONA, Tin House, Community of Writers, and Black Women Writers in Europe. Her fiction explores rebellion, belonging, grief, and transformation—often through the lens of music, mythology, and characters who don’t fit in. Sharda is drawn to weirdos, dreamers, and those navigating trauma in search of beauty and truth. Her debut novel, Bank of the Underworld, follows a young Black man excavating the legacy of his late father, a heavy metal-obsessed graphic artist. She is currently seeking representation and working on a second novel involving memory, belonging, family legacy, and possibly werewolves. Instagram: @shardaglass
Victoria Palmer lives in Washington, DC. Her writing centers on the power and influence physical landscapes and geographies have on the sense of self and the meaning of home. Her play Tea Spilling appeared in the Best 10-Minute Plays Anthology from Smith and Kraus, and was produced in the DC/Baltimore area for the Two Strikes Theatre Collective. She is an alumna of the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwright Intensive. Her fiction work has earned support from Tin House Winter Workshop, The Yale Writer’s Workshop, and Kweli’s Art of the Short Story. She is working on a linked short fiction collection and a novel.
Ife O. Olatona is a Johns Hopkins alum and multidisciplinary writer. In 2021, he was spotlighted by The Times in an article titled “Young Hearts: 5 Poets Under 25.” He has performed poems on various stages, and his writing has been published by The New York Times, The Poetry Society, The Massachusetts Review, The Chicago Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Review, Transition Magazine, and elsewhere. An alum of the Black Playwrights’ Gathering at the Kennedy Center—America’s national cultural center—he previously curated a contemporary African poetry exhibit at the National Museum of Language in the U.S. Born in Lagos, he has lived in multiple cities across Nigeria and the United States. He is working on a novel. Instagram: @ife.olatona
Guy Melvin was born in North Philadelphia, and lives in Brooklyn. He has spent the majority of his career working for nonprofits that provide underserved young adults with education and career opportunities. When not working or writing, he enjoys cooking, reading, running, and producing music with friends. He has an MA in Literary Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. His fiction can be found in Sundog Lit, ANMLY, A Long House Magazine, Cerasus Magazine and other journals. His short story ‘Champagne Pools’ was a 2023 Finalist for Best of the Net. He’s at work on a novel as well as a book of short stories. http://www.guymelvin.com
Darise JeanBaptiste is a writer born and raised in the Bronx. She earned her MFA from Rutgers-Newark and her MA in English from Brooklyn College. She is a board member with Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, a community arts organization where she attended youth summer camp. She also volunteers with Lampblack, an organization created in 2020 to support Black writers. Her work is featured at Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, Nature, Electric Literature, Green Mountains Review, and Aster(ix) Journal. When she’s not writing, Darise enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, traveling to her father’s homeland of St.Lucia with her sisters, or visiting dessert shops in Brooklyn, where she currently lives with her partner.
Eliamani Ismail – Eliamani Ismail is a writer and filmmaker from Washington, D.C., by way of Mali and Tanzania. She holds a B.A. in Film and Africana Studies from Scripps College and an MFA from University of Maryland. Outside of writing, Eliamani works as an educator, editor, and arts organizer. She teaches undergraduate writing at the University of Maryland, and serves as a fiction editor at Lampblack Magazine, a publication dedicated to uplifting Black writers. Her fiction often navigates African dignity, diaspora, and female agency with a strong commitment to anti-colonial perspectives. She has been supported by fellowships from the Aspen Institute, Brooklyn Poets, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Kimbilio for Black Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn and is at work on her first novel.
Karen Hill Crowell is a freelance writer and copywriter who collaborates with clients ranging from global retailers to emerging brands. She’s currently at work on her first novel, which follows a twenty-something navigating the aftermath of a friendship breakup as she reckons with burgeoning adulthood, belonging, and starting over. Karen’s creative interests go beyond the page; she’s been knitting for most of her life and also enjoys crocheting, painting and tending to her small-but-mighty garden. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and now resides in Jersey City with her husband and daughter.
Alicia Harrmon is a writer of fiction, poetry, and film scripts. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s in sociology and African American and African Diaspora Studies with minors in psychology, Spanish, and creative writing. Her work focuses on the rawness, complexity, and political nature of intimacy in its various forms: familial, platonic, romantic, and sexual. Her fiction is published in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and her poetry is upcoming in the Praisesong for the People printed anthology. Additionally, she wrote and co-directed a short film titled White Dresses with filmmaker Musila Munuve. Now a fiction fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, she lives in Austin, Texas. Instagram: @aliciaharmon_
Racquel Goodison was born and raised in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica. She writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and has been a resident at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, Millay, Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Saltonstall Arts Colony, among others. She was also awarded the Astraea Emerging Lesbian Writer’s Grant. She is on faculty at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and was a New York Writers’ Coalition workshop leader for several years. She is currently working on a collection of short stories. Instagram: @racquelgoodison
Kami Enzie is a New Orleans-raised, D.C.-based writer. His work appears in Chicago Review, The Glacier, Image, New American Writing, Obsidian, Passages North, and Quarter Notes, among others. He is an alumnus of Tin House Winter Workshops, VCFA’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Instagram: @yungwerther
Erica David was a bit of a Wookiee as a kid—hairy and prone to emitting ear-splitting sounds without reason. She has since learned to use her “inside voice” and authored over sixty books and comics for young readers. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn. As a writer, educator and administrator, she has a keen interest in the ways that language and narrative shape experience, particularly their roles in creating stereotypes that have been used to prop up systems of oppression. This has led her to serve as the Director of the ACES Program for non-native English speakers at St. Joe’s and, most recently, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica.
C.G. Crawford is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama, but he calls home the place of his maternal roots in the rural parts of West Alabama. He is an MFA student in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. He has a political science degree from Auburn University at Montgomery and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University with concentrations in American Studies and Black Church Studies. His writing attempts to wrestle with the soul, the South, and the surreal in ways that give shape to a collective human experience.
Ashley M. Coleman is a writer and music industry executive with over a decade of experience nurturing creative talent. Her passion lies in building supportive communities for writers and artists from marginalized backgrounds, work that extends far beyond her published writing. In 2017, Coleman founded Permission to Write, a thriving community dedicated to Black writers and writers of color. Through this platform, she creates safe gathering spaces and provides educational opportunities that empower emerging voices. Coleman’s music industry work centers on supporting artists and creators, where she applies the same community-building principles that drive her literary advocacy. She believes in the transformative power of community and continues to develop programs and initiatives that provide both creative and professional development opportunities for underrepresented voices in the arts. Outside of that work, you can find her writing, listening to playlists, somewhere outside on a walk or hike with her husband, being a part of a fabulous (and supportive) community of writers in LA or buying books to add to her “To Be Read” cart. Instagram: @ashleymcoleman_
Stefan Bindley-Taylor is a Trinidadian-American author, musician, and educator born and raised in Maryland. His stories balance absurdism, futurism, and sentiment to showcase characters from the Caribbean diaspora through a nuanced, humorous, and empathetic lens. His work has been published in several outlets including Adda, Brooklyn Rail, and NY Carib News. He is the winner of the 2025 Chautauqua Janus prize, the 2025 DISQUIET Flowers fellowship, and the 2024 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Prize, as well as a short-lister for the 2024 Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize, and a finalist for the PEN 2023 Emerging Voices Fellowship. He currently splits his time between New York City and Virginia, where he is pursuing his M.F.A at the University of Virginia. Outside of writing, Stefan received his M.Ed From Harvard Graduate School of Education and has worked as a teacher for over six years. He has also been a performing musician for over a decade. He writes and performs in a punk project called FISHLORD and an alternative hip-hop project called Nafets. He is an avid chess player, a disgruntled Manchester United fan, and a Caribbean foodie. https://www.instagram.com/stef_b.t/
Emma Akpan is a writer who lives in Washington, DC, and was born in Toledo, Ohio. She is working on a novel about a thirteen year old girl in Toledo who uses hip-hop to navigate her difficult childhood, and a collection of short stories about women encountering gentrification in Washington, DC. She writes about girlhood, the unsaid, fugue and paths of escape, and agency for the powerless. Emma loves exploring other creative pursuits by baking cookies, taking pictures, or making floral arrangements or finding the best cup of coffee. Emma has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center. She has participated in Kenyon Review Summer Workshop, Tin House Summer Workshop and is VONA Voices Fellow. Her writing has appeared in Reckon Magazine, New City Art, TBD Health, Rewire News, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Root. You can find more about Emma at emmaakpan.com, on Instagram @emmanism. [Emma was scheduled for the 2024 retreat, but got waylaid by travel troubles. We’re glad she’s able to join us for this summer’s retreat.]
2025 Returning Fellows
Omaria Sanchez Pratt Omaria Pratt (they/them) is a Black trans writer from North Carolina. They hold an M.F.A. from the University of Kentucky where they were a recipient of the 2018 Nikky Finney Fellowship. They have received fellowships from Periplus Mentorship Collective, Kimbilio for Black Fiction, Lambda Literary, Roots. Wounds. Words. and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Their work can be found in Taint Taint Taint Magazine, StoryMagazine issue 9, and the Anthology of Appalachian Writers–VolumeXII, where they were nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
A lover of language in all forms and a word laborer who is not shy about correcting errors, politics be damned, Mary C. Lewis balances her enthusiasm for grammar with a commitment to act creatively on her knowledge. Throughout more than four decades, Mary has built a communications portfolio. She began her career as editorial assistant and then managing editor of Ebony Jr! (Johnson Publishing), entering self-employment in 1980. She has edited manuscripts for book publishers; served as “last eyes” on stewardship reports at universities; helped implement first responses to the Affordable Care Act; and composed intranet articles on cultural events for a global investment firm. Her latest day job, as a senior editor, involves her in analyses of transformative destinations. Those are day jobs. Mary also unearths characters’ footsteps and voices, to bring collective fulfillment to as many ancestors and contemporaries as her daily 4 a.m. rising allows. eMerge has published her short fiction, and her essays appeared in Under Her Skin and Sleeping with One Eye Open. Her début novel, Strangers and Pilgrims, will extend to a sequel. Mary enjoys cooking, films, books, and conversations among the sun, moon, and innocent, determined creatures.
JM Holmes is a father of two, whose family was displaced by the Eaton Canyon Fire in LA. He used to write for TV but now organizes full time with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party and Black Men Build. He has an old collection of stories with Little, Brown and a forthcoming debut novel from Common Notions Press.
Jason Harris is a Baltimore based futurist, educator and cultural activist. He is the founder and facilitator of the BlkRobot Project, a long term multi-modal educational art effort designed to place STEM educational opportunities in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the U.S. and Africa. Jason is also a writer whose work has appeared in Black Enterprise magazine, Catalyst Literary journal, Chicory, BmoreArt.com and various online publications. He self-published the speculative fiction anthology entitled, “Redlines: Baltimore 2028′′ in 2012, and is a 2015 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. He also runs the “SoulBot Saturday Design Squad”, a S.T.E.A.M. based learning course for youth in Baltimore. He co-facilitated “Future Cities” course at Goucher College, and has previously facilitated classes/workshops at the University of Baltimore and the University of the Bahamas. He currently teaches technology classes at the Enoch Pratt Free Library System in Baltimore. You can find him on BlueSky @jharrisfuture, Instagram @jharrisfuture and via Google Sites at https://sites.google.com/site/jharrisfuturenow/home
Leesa Fenderson is an IP attorney and has recently completed her Doctoral studies in USC’s Creative Writing and Literature program. She is polishing a collection of short stories. Her work appears in Joyland Magazine, Story Magazine, CRAFT, Callaloo Journal, and elsewhere. Leesa believes deeply that art and rest are modes of resistance.
Shinelle L. Espaillat is a writer whose work has appeared in midnight & indigo, Pleiades Magazine, Torch Literary Arts, Tahoma Literary Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, Minerva Rising, Ghost Parachute, among others, as well as in the collections Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories, Shale: Extreme Fiction for Extreme Conditions, and How Higher Education Feels: Commentaries on Poems That Illuminate Emotions in Learning and Teaching. Her stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net Prizes. She holds an M.A. in English-Creative Writing from Temple University. She teaches at Westchester Community College in NY.
Jamiyla Chisholm is an author, journalist and educator. She is the author of the book The Community: A Memoir. Jamiyla has appeared in The New York Times, and her writing has been published by BET, Colorlines, Essence, TIME’S UP and other companies and publications. As a writer and editor, Jamiyla leads creative content and storytelling for New York City’s first women’s college and has created narratives that seek to empower people of color and the silenced. As an educator, Jamiyla teaches on the importance of storytelling to create positive narrative and social change. In 2024, she joined the Kimbilio team as a Fellow.
Elizabeth Bryant is a lifelong student of the Minnesota River Valley. Her writing explores black interiorities, especially in rural and small town environments in the midwest. She has studied history and black studies, and worked as a barista, literary nonprofit manager, nanny, publicist, events programmer, butcher, and farmer-trainee. Elizabeth is a founding member of the Minneapolis-based artist collective Burn Something, and a current MFA student in fiction at the University of Maryland.
Samuel Autman For the thirteen years Samuel Autman wrote for daily newspapers in Tulsa, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and San Diego, he felt more was calling to him. After penning a front-page story about Cupcake Brown’s remarkable journey from crack addict and street gang member to law school graduate, he found it. Since then his nonfiction has appeared in It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction, The Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in Nonfiction, The Chalk Circle: Prizewinning Intercultural Essays, Ninth Letter, The Common Reader, Under the Gum Tree, The Little Patuxent Review, PANORAMA: The Journal of Travel, Place and Nature, Memoir Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, The St. Louis Anthology and Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America. He’s a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee in nonfiction. When a young director named Chinonye Chukwu converted his flash nonfiction into a short film called “A Long Walk,” he began experimenting with form. His last publication, “Friends on My Screens and In My Head,” blurs the lines between personal narrative and screenwriting, television, and film history. Now a writing professor at DePauw University, he’s pursuing short fiction and screenplays.
