THE 2023 KWELI WRITING FELLOWS

Kweli has been mentoring underrepresented writers since December 2009.

Kweli Fellow Delia Selina Taylor recently wrote about her fellowship experience. “Never has my work been taken so seriously or held with such keen attention and care. For the first time in a long time, my work as a woman of color, and all my intersectionalities, was not only centered, but celebrated, and for that, I am forever grateful to my amazing and talented cohort, the fantastic workshop and masterclass leaders, and the inimitable and gracious Laura Pegram, who created this beautiful community.”

We are thrilled to introduce you to the 2023 Kweli Writing Fellows.

Soulet Qureshi Ali is a Korean-Pakistani-American and Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. Her writing focuses on blood purity, mixed-race identity, and racial supremacies beyond whiteness. She is currently working on a collection of essays.

Alison Leigh Jones is an Amsterdam-based writer with roots in Chicago and the San Francisco bay area. She studied Creative Writing in university, and currently juggles her writing pursuits with motherhood. Her work is featured in Raising Mothers, Ditto Kids Magazine and Sadé Magazine. Her writing explores the intersections of racial identity and neurodivergence as well as themes of communal care, hope and generational healing. She is currently working on both an adult and a middle grade novel.

Ebonya Lia Washington is a NYC-based writer. Her novel in progress explores the isolation of undiagnosed chronic illness.

Abhigna Mooraka is a reader, writer, and educator from Bangalore, currently living in New York City. She is currently at work on a novel and a short story collection, both set in southern India.

Halima Choukri Osman is a Somali Canadian writer from Djibouti who has been living in New York for over two decades. She is currently working on a novel in stories about the magical thinking that can exist despite the trauma of war.

Oelania Rubino is a writer and an artist. She was born in Barahona, Dominican Republic and immigrated to Brooklyn, New York at the age of eight. She is working on a novel.