KWELI
MENTORSHIP
Fellowship Program
As part of Kweli’s successful history of mentoring emerging writers since 2009, Kweli’s Fellowship Program seeks to provide several early-stage writers of adult fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, an 11-month writing fellowship. From January to November each year, fellows will receive mentorship opportunities as well as exclusive access to Kweli programming (e.g. Kweli International Literary Festival).
Fellows Testimonials:
“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.”
~Delia Selina Taylor
2021“Throughout the year-long fellowship, I met weekly with the other fellows in my cohort and with Laura to discuss fiction and craft. This was during the thick of the pandemic, and their community helped alleviate the social isolation as well as the solitude in which writing often takes place. The generous stipend allowed me to further invest in my art. And I also had free access to Kweli's International Literary Festival and the Color of Children's Literature Conference—including a few masterclasses led by some of the best in the business, from K-Ming Chang to Kirstin Valdez Quade.”
~Guia Marie Del Prado
2020
Sing the Truth!
Program
The Kweli Sing the Truth! Mentorship Program is a new initiative for writers and illustrators of books for children and young adults that expands upon the vision of Kweli to nurture new and emerging BIPOC writers and illustrators. It is an extension of the Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference, the nation’s largest conference for BIPOC creatives of work for children and young adults. Mentees receive free admission to the spring conference and mentorship for a full year.
Sing the Truth! officially began in January 2021 with Rio Cortez in conversation with Kweli Interviews Editor Annabella Correa Maynard on the art and craft of writing The ABCs of Black History.
Sing the Truth! Mentee Testimonials:
“WOW is all I can say. If the book (MAITRI TAKES A STAND) does get published it will really be because of this program and the completely amazing job Neela did reading closely, lovingly, and pointing me to where the revisions should focus and even outlining steps I could take to implement them in a way that will keep what is strong in the manuscript while really pushing it forward. I feel a sense of mission now to actually dig back in and revise before sending it to an agent who wants to read it and an editor who wanted me to submit it. thank you!! “
~ Chaya Bhuvaneswar
Mentor: Neela Vaswani
Fall 2021“Hey guys. Ntobie Ndzabukelwako here. I’m a Swazi spoken word poet, writing my very first picture book. I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s been a hectic process. Luckily, I’m a mentee in a Kweli program and Lissette Norman has been really helping me out. One thing she showed me is that I can give my characters more depth even though I’ve got a limited number of words that I’m using with the book. She showed me many more things. This is only my first book. I want to write many more books and I can’t wait!”
~ Ntobie Ndzabukelwako
Mentor: Lissette Norman
Fall 2021
