October 28, 2020, 1:17pm
With the end of the year (unbelievably) approaching, there’s a new opportunity for writers of color to kick off 2021: a new mentorship program, created by some of the most accomplished writers in journalism and literary media today, is taking applications now.
The PERIPLUS collective, which aims to support emerging BIPOC writers, has gathered a superstar list of mentors including C Pam Zhang, Daniel Peña, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, E. Alex Jung, Eduardo C. Corral, Esmé Weijun Wang, Hanif Abdurraqib, Jenna Wortham, Kelli Jo Ford, Layli Long Soldier, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Nicholas Casey, Nicole Chung, Oscar Villalon, R.O. Kwon, Rachel Khong, Tiana Clark, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and Yukari Iwatani Kane.
Each of them will spend a half hour every other month with mentees to discuss career development, craft concerns, and anything else related to the practice of writing. The mentors are unpaid, the group noted in a statement:
We like the idea of a low-key, informal, mutual-aid-style project that exists outside of institutions. Though some of us are affiliated with institutions such as universities or magazines—the group includes creative-writing professors and staff writers at the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, New York, and Wired, for example—we don’t have outside funding or other institutional support for this project. It’s just us.
Anyone who’s interested can apply here by Dec. 15.