Literary Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 Oregon Literary Fellowships.
Literary Arts received 408 applications from writers and 17 applications from publishers for the 2021 fellowships. Out-of-state judges spent several months evaluating these applications, using literary excellence as the primary criterion.
Since 1987, Literary Arts has honored over 650 Oregon writers and publishers, and distributed more than $1 million in fellowships and award monies through the Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships program.
Oregon Literary Career Fellowships
In 2021, Literary Arts awarded two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each.
Annie Sheppard of Cottage Grove (nonfiction), Oregon Literary Career Fellowship
Annie Sheppard writes speculative prose. Her essays have appeared in Phoebe, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Fourth Genre, The Writer, and the Pushcart Prize XLV.
Sandy Tanaka of Portland (fiction), Writer of Color Oregon Literary Career Fellowship
Sandy Tanaka writes fiction, poetry, and memoir. She has a B.A. in film from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. She is also an art director and designer.
Oregon Literary Fellowships
Literary Arts awarded fellowships of $3,500 to 9 writers and 2 publishers. Oregon Literary Fellowships are intended to help Oregon writers initiate, develop, or complete literary projects. Fellowships are also awarded to support Oregon’s independent publishers, small presses, and literary magazines.
FICTION
Kesha Ajose-Fisher of Portland, Writer of Color Fellowship
Kesha Ajose-Fisher is the author of No God Like the Mother. She tells stories about her years in Nigeria through her transition to America for the value in the experiences shared with the sundry mix of people that her American mother exposed them to in childhood. Her writing has been published in several online and print collections.
Pedro Hoffmeister of Eugene, Laurell Swails and Donald Monroe Memorial Fellowship
Pedro Hoffmeister is the author of five books including the recent novels This Is The Part Where You Laugh and Too Shattered For Mending.
Emily Woodworth of Sisters, Laurell Swails and Donald Monroe Memorial Fellowship
Emily Woodworth’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, CAROUSEL, After the Pause, Inkwell Journal, and others. She earnedMFA in Writing (emphasis in Image + Text) from California Institute of the Arts.
NONFICTION
Scott Korb of Portland, Walt Morey Fellowship
Scott Korb is the director of the Pacific University MFA in Writing program and the author of The Faith Between Us, Life In Year One and Light Without Fire. He’s also an editor of The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers and Gesturing Toward Reality: David Foster Wallace and Philosophy.
A.M. Rosales of Portland, Women Writers Fellowship
A.M. Rosales is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and translator originally from Cochabamba, Bolivia. They hold a literature degree from George Mason University. A Pride Foundation scholar and a collaborating artist at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, their work has been supported by the Precipice Fund and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
POETRY
Amy Miller of Ashland, C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship
Amy Miller’s full-length poetry collection The Trouble with New England Girls won the Louis Award from Concrete Wolf Press. Her chapbooks include I Am on a River and Cannot Answer (BOAAT Press) and Rough House (White Knuckle Press). She works for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and is the poetry editor of the NPR listeners’ guide Jefferson Journal.
Alyssa Ogi of Portland, Oregon Poetry Community Fellowship(made possible by a former Oregon Literary Fellowship Recipient)
Alyssa Ogi received her MFA from the University of Oregon, and now edits books for Tin House in Portland. Her poems can be found in Best New Poets, Poetry Northwest, Crab Orchard Review, and other publications. A recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, she is currently at work on her first poetry collection: a reimagined history of the American West Coast through the lens of the Asian Pacific diaspora.
YOUNG READERS
Shana Targosz of Portland, Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers
Shana Targosz is a MG/YA/PB author who writes about magical girls, budding friendships, ghosts who may or may not be friendly, and fiercely-held hope. She’s an active member of SCBWI and received an award at the 2017 Oregon Regional Conference. She’s an Author Mentor Match mentee, a Pitch Wars mentor, and has been a guest host on Grace Lin’s #kidlitwomen podcast.
DRAMA
Sara Jean Accuardi of Portland, Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship
Sara Jean Accuardi is an award-winning playwright whose full-length plays include The Delays, BREAK, The Storyteller, and Portrait of the Widow Kinski. Her writing has been produced and developed around the country, including with Theatre Vertigo, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Spooky Action Theater, Victory Gardens, Portland Center Stage, Chicago Dramatists, The Blank Theatre, and PlayMakers Rep. She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights.
2021 Oregon Literary Fellowships for Publishers
Forest Avenue Press of Portland
Forest Avenue Press, founded in 2012, publishes literary fiction on a joyride and the occasional memoir. They publish two titles a year; recent titles include A Small Crowd of Strangers and Wife Daughter Self.
Northwest Review of Portland
Northwest Review was first published by the University of Oregon in 1957. It ceased operation in 2011, and in 2020 it resumed publication.
2021 Oregon Literary Fellowships Judges
Fellowships to writers of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry were judged by a panel consisting of Jaswinder Bolina, author of Phantom Camera (Green Rose Prize, New Issues Press and Hachette ) and Carrier Wave (Colorado Prize, Center for Literary Publishing); Susan Briante, author of four books, including Defacing the Monument and The Market Wonders and Aimee Phan, author of The Reeducation of Cherry Truong and We Should Never Meet: Stories.
The judge for young readers literature was Kekla Magoon, best known for her NAACP Image Award-nominated young adult novel The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, The Season of Styx Malone, and X. The judge for drama was Richard Caliban, former artistic director of Cucaracha Theater in New York where over 14 seasons he produced numerous new works and directed many of his own plays, including Homo Sapien Shuffle at the Public Theatre. Daniel Slager, publisher & CEO of Milkweed Editions, was the judge in publishing.
