Literary Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 Oregon Literary Fellowships.
Literary Arts received 536 applications from writers and 26 applications from publishers for the 2023 fellowships. Out-of-state judges spent several months evaluating these applications, using literary excellence as the primary criterion. This year, the Oregon Arts Commission generously provided funding for four of the fellowships.
Since 1987, Literary Arts has honored over 700 Oregon writers and publishers, and distributed more than $1 million in fellowships and award monies through the Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships program.
The 2023 Oregon Literary Fellowship Recipients will be honored at the 2023 Oregon Book Awards ceremony on April 3, along with the winners and finalists of the 2023 Oregon Book Awards. The ceremony will be hosted by Luke Burbank.
Oregon Literary Career Fellowships
In 2023, Literary Arts awarded two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each.
Grace Chao of Eugene (fiction)
Writer of Color Oregon Literary Career Fellowship
Grace Chao is pursuing her MFA in fiction at the University of Oregon. She is the winner of The Sewanee Review’s 2022 Fiction Contest, with publication forthcoming in spring 2023. She was also a finalist for the 2022 Iowa Review Award in fiction. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from Stanford University, and is currently at work on her first story collection about a Taiwanese American family.
Matthew Dickman of Portland (poetry)
Oregon Literary Career Fellowship
Matthew Dickman was raised in the Lents district of Portland, Oregon. He is the author of six books of poetry including Mayakovsky’s Revolver, Wonderland, and Husbandry, all published with W. W. Norton & Company. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the May Sarton Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he works as a freelance copywriter and is a single father of two. He and his sons live in SE Portland.
Oregon Literary Fellowships
Literary Arts awarded fellowships of $3,500 to 13 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
Dustin Hendrick of Portland, Laurell Swails and Donald Monroe Memorial Fellowship
Dustin Hendrick is an author and screenwriter. His autobiographical essay collection, The Endless M, was released in 2020. By day he is a script supervisor and by night is at work on a novel. In summer 2023 Dustin will co-direct a film adaptation of his short story, Out of View, with his husband Nathan, a filmmaker.
Margaret Malone of Portland, Laurell Swails and Donald Monroe Memorial Fellowship
Margaret Malone is the author of the story collection People Like You, which was a finalist for the 2016 PEN Hemingway Award, winner of the 2016 Balcones Fiction Prize, and selected as one of the Northwest’s “25 Books to Read Before You Die” by Powell’s Books. A recent MacDowell Fellow, her writing can be found in BOMB, The Rumpus, Paper Darts, Oregon Humanities, and elsewhere.
Cecily Wong of Portland, Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship
Cecily Wong is the author of three books. Her debut novel, Diamond Head, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, recipient of an Elle Readers’ Prize, and voted a best debut of the 2015 Brooklyn Book Festival. Her second novel, Kaleidoscope, was a best book of the month at Buzzfeed, Apple Books, and Today.com. Cecily is also the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Gastro Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to Food.
NONFICTION
Judith Barrington of Portland, C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship
Judith Barrington’s Lifesaving: A Memoir was the winner of the Lambda Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. Writing the Memoir is her bestselling text, used widely in teaching programs. Her sixth collection of poetry, Long Love: New & Selected Poems,came out from Salmon Poetry in 2018. She is co-founder of Soapstone, a nonprofit offering study groups on women writers, and also a disability rights activist.
Elanor Broker of Portland, Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship
Elanor Broker writes essays, memoir, and fiction, exploring questions of trans motherhood, queer time, and how queer lives take root in the landscapes of the rural Pacific Northwest. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Slate, Catapult, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is an MFA candidate at Portland State University and a former Tin House Workshop fellow.
Deb Miller Landau of Portland, Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship
Deb Miller Landau is a Canadian-born journalist and essayist. She has written more than a dozen travel guidebooks for Lonely Planet, and her work has appeared in Forbes, National Geographic Traveler, Atlanta Magazine, and Best American Crime Writing, among others. She is currently hard at work on two projects: a memoir, and a true crime book that will be published by Pegasus Books in 2024.
Julie Morris of Portland, Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship
Julie Morris is a Canadian American artist and emerging writer. Julie writes creative nonfiction about growing up Queer in a conservative Christian family, coming out later in life, and the triumphs and difficulties of parenting a disabled child. She’s currently working on a memoir about the exhausting and isolating work of raising a child with a rare genetic disorder in a society that expects families—especially mothers—to do it all alone.
Emily Shetler of Portland, Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship
Emily Shetler writes both fiction and nonfiction, and her reporting has appeared in the New York Times. She teaches creative writing, English composition, and comics workshops. She holds an MFA in fiction and MA in journalism, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is at work on a memoir and novel.
kim thompson of Portland, Writer of Color Fellowship
kim thompson is a queer Korean-American-adoptee interdisciplinary artist residing in Portland after 25 years of living in Europe, South Korea, and Minneapolis, MN. Her work on the page and stage has appeared at several artistic venues in Minneapolis, MN, including the Loft Literary Center, the Playwright’s Centre, and Pillsbury House Theatre; and in several adoptee-centric publications, along with South Korean feminist journal ILDA. She is currently in the early stages of working on creating an illustrated memoir.
POETRY
Trevino L. Brings Plenty of Milwaukie, Oregon Poetry Community Fellowship (made possible by a former Oregon Literary Fellowship Recipient)
Trevino L. Brings Plenty, MFA, enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Brings Plenty is a filmmaker, musician, and poet. His work has appeared in Yellow Medicine Review, Red Ink Magazine, World Literature Today, Plume, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Waxwing, Poetry, New Poets of Native Nations. Brings Plenty’s books are Wakpá Wanáǧi Ghost River (2015) and Real Indian Junk Jewelry (2012).
Sara Burant of Eugene, Walt Morey Fellowship
Sara Burant’s poems and reviews have appeared in Spillway, Ruminate, Pedestal, Spry, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. She’s the author of the chapbook Verge. She received an MFA in poetry from St. Mary’s College of California. In 2019, she was awarded a residency at Playa. She lives in Eugene where she takes care of other people’s pets and gardens.
YOUNG READERS
Stephan Nance of Portland, Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers
Stephan Nance (they/them) is a writer and musician whose performing credits as Sparkbird include multiple tours in Japan and Europe. They are a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, a 2022 Tin House YA Workshop alum, and a 2023 We Need Diverse Books mentee. Stephan lives in Portland with their partner Adam, a 15-year-old Senegal parrot named Georgie, and a 44-year-old Yellow-naped parrot named Fred. Stephan is currently working on their next album and a very birdy young adult novel set in Eastern Oregon.
DRAMA
Sofia Molimbi of Portland, Women Writers Fellowship
Sofia Molimbi (Dubrawsky) is a playwright who has been published by Smith & Kraus, Applause Acting Series, Meriwether Publishing, Pioneer Drama Service, and The Pitkin Review. Awards: The Finlandia Foundation for playwriting, The Spirit of Goddard, and The Pearl Foundation. She is also an actor, drama teacher, and theatre director. Sofia has worked as a theatre artist in NYC, Dublin, Helsinki, and her hometown of Portland. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College
PUBLISHERS
Berm Magazine of Portland
Berm is a 32-page contemporary arts magazine that releases twice a year. Their mission is to provide a platform for artists, writers, and creators, upcoming and established, and to showcase a broad and diverse view of contemporary art and design.
YesYes Books of Portland
YesYes Books has been publishing provocative collections of poetry, fiction, and experimental art since 2011. They look for work that acknowledges and celebrates our passionate, complex, and boundless natures.
Fellowships to writers of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry were judged by a panel consisting of Natasha Rao, poet and author of Latitude; Rebecca Lee, author of Bobcat and Other Stories; andRaquel Gutiérrez, author of Brown Neon.
The judge for young readers literature was author A.R. Capetta. Darrah Cloud, screenwriter and playwright, judged in drama. The fellowships for publishers were judged by Gerald Maa, editor and director of the Georgia Review.
