We're now planning our 2017 conference—scheduled for April 8, 2017, in New York City—and we expect this year's event to be even more exciting, with a bigger and more comfortable venue, two new craft-focused tracks, an appearance by Caldecott Medalist Javaka Steptoe, and a keynote luncheon featuring New York Times bestselling writer Cynthia Leitich Smith. We want to inspire and serve as many creative people of color as possible, but to do that . . . 

We Need Your Help! 

Your donation will go directly to defraying our costs in the following areas: 
●  Travel costs and honorarium for our keynote speaker
●  Honoraria for panelists, workshop leaders, and presenters
●  Scholarships for qualified writers
●  General conference expenses and future planning

Kweli Journal, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization and donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. We have been volunteer run and operated since December 2009.

Kweli nurtures new and emerging writers of color. We are also one of the few literary journals that pays writers for their work. We rely on small grants and donations throughout the year. Your donation will assist in the costs of maintaining this publishing effort, and supporting our subsidized free literary programming: Kweli Scholars Program and Reading and Conversation series. Our Kweli Scholars Program provides emerging writers of color with tuition free writing classes and mentorship. In addition, our online literary journal and free Reading and Conversation series—presented in partnership with the New York Times African Heritage Network—have allowed new voices to share both page and stage. These new voices appeared on the digital page with Hodder Fellow Cristina Garcia in April 2013, and MacArthur Fellow Edward P. Jones shared the stage with new and emerging voices at the New York Times Conference Center in April 2011. 

Princess Perry appeared on both the page and the stage. She was published in the inaugural issue of the journal and joined Kweli's editorial circle in 2013. She had this to say about the importance of Kweli to the literary landscape.

"Five years ago, I answered an extended call for short stories from a journal whose name I could not correctly pronounce.  Since then, I have learned to speak and love the name Kweli. In its 2009 inaugural issue, Kweli published my short story, "A Hard Bed," which the editors of the journal also nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Within the next year or so, Kweli invited me (along with other writers that the journal nurtures) to read at the New York Times building as an opener for Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward P. Jones. I was given the additional honor of introducing Mr. Jones. That night, he autographed a copy of my book, "The Known World," with the words, "one word at a time," not only encouragement but sound advice from an author who shares my world view and believed that my voice has a place in literature. In the fall of this year, my story "A Penny, A Pound" will be published in the anthology All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color (University of Wisconsin Press). None of this would have happened without the constant encouragement and support of Kweli. My forthcoming and recently published words were rejected by numerous mainstream journals before finding a home with Kweli and All About Skin. Even when my stories gained some notice from mainstream journals by garnering finalist and honorable mention status, they were still passed over for stories with subject matter far afield from the exploration of what it has meant to be black, a woman, a mulatto, an artist and a farmer in Virginia and North Carolina.
 
Kweli provides a platform for the voices of writers of color, like me, who, despite our unceasing efforts to be heard, do not easily find a willing and welcoming place for our work in  the wider publishing world. With your help, Kweli will continue to do this extraordinary work, and I will gratefully continue to follow the advice of Mr. Edward P. Jones, knowing there is a place in the world for each word I write. That place is Kweli."
 

The levels of giving are outlined below.  

Literary Saint: $1,000 and up

Muse:  $500

Scribe: $250

Wordsmith: $100

Bibliophile: $50

Bookworm: $25

Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
 

Checks may be mailed to:

Kweli Journal, Inc.
PO Box 693
New York, NY  10021


Thank you in advance for your generous support. No donation is too small. We truly appreciate each and every dollar.