January 9, 2024, 10:00am
Literary Hub is pleased to announce the 2024 class of Periplus Fellows. This year, Periplus awarded a total of 48 mentorships to writers of color living and working in the United States—selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants—pairing each one with a member of the collective, an established writer who will meet monthly with their mentee to foster community, support their writing practice, and advise on the nitty gritty of making a career as an artist.
“Periplus has given me incredible access to creative, professional, and social resources through its mentorship program,” said Hilal Isler, a 2023 Periplus Fellow, in a release. “As a first generation immigrant who doesn’t know anyone in the publishing industry—and who doesn’t have an MFA—I’ve found that Periplus has helped me progress on the journey toward publication, supporting me and connecting me to resources I need to make my dream of becoming an author a reality.”
The full list of 2024 fellows is below:
Alice Nguyen (she/her) is a journalist and fiction writer based in NYC. Her writing has appeared in NBC News, St. Louis Magazine, and K’in Literary Journal. Alice’s mentor is Mimi Lok.
Amari Amai is a black transmasculine poet and Great Migration baby, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. They are a poet in residence at the Chicago Poetry Center, and a Watering Hole ‘23 fellow. Their work is influenced by black spiritual practices, weaving ancestral voices and histories with southern dialect to paint their black trans lived experiences. Amari’s mentor is Dustin Pearson.
Amy Zhou 周纯 (they/she) is a queer neurodivergent researcher-organizer, urban planner, and writer based on Ohlone land (Oakland, California). They write and create comics about memory, diaspora, land, and home. Amy’s mentor is Lauren Markham.
Angélica Martinez is a Venezuelan American writer, editor, and educator based in New York City. She holds an MFA from Hunter College and has received support from VONA/Voices. Angélica’s mentor is Kirstin Valdez Quade.
Anna Hui Tran (she/her) is a writer from Sydney, Australia, now living in Iowa, USA. Her work was previously shortlisted for The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award. Anna’s mentor is James Han Mattson.
Anthony Gomez III is an English PhD student at Stony Brook University and is based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a Chicano writer with fiction appearing in New Letters, Four Way Review, Shenandoah, and other literary magazines. Anthony’s mentor is Derek Palacio.
Arina Sarwari-Stadnyk (she/they) is a queer Afghan-Ukrainian linocut printmaker and writer on unceded Ohlone Lisjan land. Arina’s drawings, linocut prints, poems, and lyrical essays celebrate diasporic memory and intergenerational joy. Arina’s mentor is Sarah Perry.
Ashna Ali is a best-of-the-net-nominated queer, disabled, and diasporic Bangladeshi poet raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn. Their first collection, The Relativity of Living Well, is forthcoming from Bone Bouquet in 2024, and their work is featured in Split This Rock, The Margins, Nat. Brut, Zoeglossia, and beyond. Ashna’s mentor Diana Khoi Nguyen.
Audrey Kuo is an interdisciplinary artist, abolitionist, coach, and mischief enthusiast working toward collective liberation. Through their art and movement work, Audrey explores their belief that the work of liberation asks us to both dismantle systems of oppression and offer compelling, joyful alternatives. Audrey’s mentor is Zeyn Joukhadar.
Ben Brooks is an impatient black editor and novelist based in New York City. You can find more of what he’s writing, reading and translating on Instagram @soarticulit. Ben’s mentor is Zain Khalid.
Canela is a 2-Spirit Indigenous artist who grew up in the heart of Oaxacalifornia. Visit https://linktr.ee/canelacreator to learn more about their work. Canela’s mentor is Angelique Stevens.
D.L. Cordero is an afro-latinx and taíno fantasy author, occasional poet, and horror dabbler working out of Denver, CO. Their writing, found in literary magazines and anthologies, centers empowered, messy characters from historically oppressed groups, with the hope of minimizing isolation in sparkly oddballs. When not storytelling, Cordero can be found wrangling their pit bull and yellow lab while binging old-school anime. Follow them @dlcorderowrites and on dlcordero.com. D.L.’s mentor is A.E. Osworth.
daniel barrios (he/him) is a Dominican/Puerto Rican writer with indigenous roots living in New York City. He holds an MFA from Southern New Hampshire University, and he teaches English literature and composition at St. Paul’s School of Nursing. He is writing a collection of short stories. Daniel’s mentor is Jenzo DuQue.
David Renteria is a racquet stringer in Sacramento, California. He writes about his own private undocumentation, with pieces in Write Now! SF Bay, Berkeley Fiction Review, and Quarter After Eight. David’s mentor is Daniel Peña.
Derrel Furutani is a Japanese-American writer and educator living in Los Angeles, CA. Derrel’s mentor is Megan Kamalei Kakimoto.
Dianna Vega is a Dominican writer and poet based in Florida. Her poetry has appeared in Outrageous Fortune and South Dakota Review. Dianna’s mentor is Cleyvis Natera.
donia salem harhoor (they/she) is a disabled egyptian american anthophile and caregiver living in Lenapehoking whose work often considers how language, lineage, land, and dis-ease shape us. Executive director of The Outlet Dance Project, lover of foxes, tree lichen, & aunties cackling, their work has received support from RAWI, Lambda Literary, Roots.Wounds.Words, Open Mouth Poetry, Swim Pony, and others. donia’s mentor is Tracy Fuad.
Ellena Basada is a writer from Gresham, Oregon. A 2019-20 Fulbright Scholar in Berlin, she is interested in creative collaborations, technologies of memory and identity, and work that explores the self as an unreliable and anxious agent. Ellena’s mentor is Melissa Chadburn.
Erika DeShay is a Black poet and English teacher living in Denver, Colorado. Erika’s work grapples with finding joy in times of sorrow and has been published or is forthcoming in Spoken Black Girl, Fatal Flaw, 45 Magazine, Half and One, and The Cortland Review. Erika’s mentor is Marlanda Dekine.
Gerardo J Mercado is a Puerto rican poet and fiction writer, his work has been published in online magazines, multiple anthologies, and literary journals. Gerardo’s work focuses on the spiritual identity, the caribbean, and nature. Gerardo’s mentor is Libby Flores.
Hairol Ma is a Taiwanese-American writer from California. She is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories. Hairol’s mentor is R.O. Kwon.
Hayward Leach is a Brooklyn-born actor and writer published in Narratively and Porter House Review. He has received support from Meg Pillow’s Craft Year workshop, Tin House, Kimbilio, and Community of Writers; he is at work on a story collection and historical fiction novel about 1930s Mexico City. Hayward’s mentor is Kim Coleman Foote.
Isabella Lopez Procassini is a writer of literary and speculative fiction. She is working on a genre-bending short story collection about the beliefs and bodies we inherit. Isabella’s mentor is Deesha Philyaw.
Isra Rahman is a journalist and advocate in Chicago working on abolishing prisons, police, and carceral systems. In her writing she explores stories of love, grief, and community pertaining to her identity as South Asian Muslim. Isra’s mentor is Hilary Leichter.
Jamar Thrasher is a Pennsylvania-based writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. His stories commonly touch on the raw aspects of the emotive human experience, specifically those dealing with religion (Christianity in particular), race, and industry. Jamar’s mentor is Laura van den Berg.
Jamiella Brooks, writing under the pen name Parlei Rivière, is a Black mother-scholar, daughter, and descendant living in Philadelphia, PA who explores the intersections of language, anti-colonialism, and space. Her debut creative fiction story, “Space Treads,” can be found in Uncanny Magazine, where she also has a forthcoming piece, “Redshift || Shiftred.” Jamiella’s mentor is Jennine Capó Crucet.
Jenny Wu is a critic and educator based in New York City whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Jenny’s mentor is Angelica Jade Bastién.
Jessica Winkler is an award-nominated researcher of oral history and a 2023 Tin House Workshop alumna. Her memoir-in-progress tracks a common dream between four generations of women in her family. In it, she also explores what it means to fail a ritual, storytelling as survival, and intergenerational hope. She writes under her Chinese name, LiXin. Jessica’s mentor is Anna Qu.
Joy KMT is a mother, lover & Hoodoo Opulence. As a writer, she has received residencies and fellowships from Heinz, MacDowell, Callaloo, & VONA. They is published in many places, including Callalloo and Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color. She is the winner of the Discovery Prize from Black Poetry Review. Her work is informed by maroon futurisms, liberation, spiritual fugitivity, & very very Black space-time. Joy’s mentor is Arthur Rickydoc Flowers.
Judy Jiang was born and raised in Oregon in a home with her parents, grandfather, and three siblings. She works, creates, and imagines as a writer, artist, and filmmaker. She is currently at work on a memoir on Chinese-American culture, daughterhood, loss, and grief. Judy’s mentor is Nadia Owusu.
Khalid Mitchell is a Charleston-based writer. He currently has work in Major 7th Magazine. Khalid’s mentor is Rion Amilcar Scott.
Laura Torlaschi is a Queens-based essayist previously published in The New York Times’ Tiny Love Stories, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Petit Mort, and P’an Ku. Drawing on her experience as the queer, disabled daughter of Argentinian immigrants, she explores themes of class, female sexuality, disability, and the American Dream. Laura’s mentor is Carina del valle Schorske.
Li Sian Goh is a Chinese-Singaporean writer who writes about art, authoritarianism, immigration and belonging. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Joyland Magazine, swamp pink, and No Tokens. She lives in New York, where she is at work on a short story collection and a novel. Li Sian’s mentor is Rachel Khong.
Lil Kalish is a Los Angeles based writer and journalist covering LGBTQ rights at HuffPost. Their reporting examines questions around rights to healthcare and bodily autonomy, tech privacy, and right-wing politics and appears in The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, BuzzFeed News, CalMatters and more. Lil’s mentor is Alex Marzano-Lesnevich.
Loren Maria Guay is a poet and speculative fiction writer, with work published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, West Trade Review, Breakwater Review, Asymptote, khoreo, and others. Born in Asunción, Paraguay and raised in Brooklyn, NY, they are currently based in Chicago and can be found at lmguay.com. Loren’s mentor is Erica Mena.
Malik Washington is a writer, educator, and artist whose writing includes essays, poetry, plays, and short stories. Across these practices, Malik seeks to create spaces that invite learning, beauty, and interruptions of power and violence. He is the creator and editor of The Stevland Exchange, a community and online platform connecting people, culture, and memory through music. Malik’s mentor is Jenny Sadre Orafai.
Marissa Fretes is a writer originally from New York City and currently based in Washington, D.C. Her work has received support from the Jenny McKean Moore Workshop at George Washington University and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Marissa’s mentor is Yalitza Ferreras.
Maya Garcia is a Nicaraguan-American writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received a dual Bachelor of Arts in English and Puerto Rican and Latino Studies from Brooklyn College in 2020 and an Advanced Certificate in Labor Studies from the Graduate Center of New York in 2021. Having previously accepted fellowships from VONA, the Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets, The Seventh Wave Magazine, Macondo Writers Workshop, and the Loft Literary Center, her work seeks to explore the intersections of Latinidad, womanhood, queerness, and working-class identities. You can find her on instagram @mayag_23. Maya’s mentor is Teow Lim Goh.
Oluwabambi Ige is a Nigerian writer living in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in Agni, Story Magazine, Joyland, Columbia Journal, has won the Winter Tangerine Award for Prose, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and received support from the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference. He is working on his first novel. Oluwabambi’s mentor is Sidik Fofana.
Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez is a Mexican-Spanish-American poet based in Brooklyn. She is the Social Media & Membership Manager for Brooklyn Poets. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in HAD, Variant Lit, X-R-A-Y, Rejection Letters, and Heavy Feather Review, among others. Paula’s mentor is Adrienne Raphel.
Solomon Tesfaye is an Ethiopian writer, born and raised in a refugee camp in Yemen, and now living in D.C. He is currently querying his first novel, which explores the refugee experience through a transcontinental lens – Elsoloo.com. Solomon’s mentor is DK Nnuro.
Summer Farah is a Palestinian American writer from California. She is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day. Summer’s mentor is E. Alex Jung.
Swiss McCall is a Black, masculine-presenting lesbian writer and professor from Maplewood, NJ. She is currently working on cultivating and expanding her artistic scope into the genres of fiction and creative non-fiction. Swiss’s mentor is Denne Michele Norris.
Tania Perez Osuna is the eldest daughter of a Zapotec-Mexican family which incidentally means she is a translator, a bootleg paralegal, and a recovering unofficial therapist. She is currently working on a project that takes place on the southern AZ border where she grew up, a place that is full of magic, community, and grief caused by bad policy, disinvestment and greed. In her work she strives to capture the complexity of joy, as well as the nuanced ways she has witnessed life unfold. Tania’s mentor is Jami Nakamura Lin.
Tommy Kim lives in the San Fernando Valley with his wife and two daughters. His writing has appeared in JOYLAND and THE ST. PETERSBURG REVIEW, and he is a graduate of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. Tommy’s mentor is Joseph Han.
Tshaka Campbell is a poet, artist, performer and the first black Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. He is a husband and father inspired by life and asks the world to “Listen Different!” Tshaka’s mentor is Vincente Perez.
Veasna Has is an LBC-raised turned Queens-based writer whose work explores themes of family and cultural identity, rooted in her Cambodian American upbringing. Her writing has been supported by the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference and Kundiman. Veasna’s mentor is Nicole Chung.
Yazud E. Brito-Milian (they/them) is a Chicane poet, impatient collagist, abolitionist, and eldest sister. Born in Winston-Salem, NC, and based in Chicago, IL, they are working on their first chapbook dedicated to their dad’s black and yellow KORG M50 and the Sonideres who raised them. Their work can be found in Muzzle Magazine, Voicemail Poems, and The Poetry Project. Yazud’s mentor is Maceo Montoya.