We’re thrilled to introduce the 2024 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients with individual features on our blog! Out-of-state judges spent several months evaluating the 500+ applications we received, and selected eight writers and two publishers to receive grants of $3,500 each. Literary Arts also awarded two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each. The 2024 Fellowship recipients were recognized at the 2024 Oregon Book Awards ceremony on April 8.
Guidelines for the 2025 Oregon Literary Fellowships will be posted in early June. The deadline to apply is August 2, 2024.
Makiia Lucier (she/her) is a 2024 Oregon Literary Fellow and the recipient of the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers. She is the author of Dragonfruit, Year of the Reaper, Isle of Blood and Stone, and A Death-Struck Year. Her stories are inspired by history and mythology and have been called “brilliant” (Booklist), “moving,” (The New York Times), “masterful” (Horn Book), and “breathtaking” (School Library Journal). They can be found on many notable lists, including the American Library Association’s “Best Fiction for Young Adults.” Makiia grew up on Guam and holds a graduate degree in library science. She is also a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Journalism.
Q & A WITH LITERARY ARTS
What is the most exciting thing about receiving an Oregon Literary Fellowship?
I grew up on the island of Guam, but I’ve lived in Oregon for thirteen years in total. I graduated from university here (go Ducks!), married my husband, and started a family. My first book is set in 1918 Portland. This part of the Pacific Northwest means a great deal to me, and receiving this Fellowship in particular has been a wonderful experience.
How would you describe your creative process?
A little messy. I don’t usually outline my stories. I also write my drafts with a pencil and notebook. This means that most mornings I’ll open my notebook to a blank page and just start to write. For me, not having an outline means I’m frequently surprised by what ends up on the page. And if I can surprise myself, it usually means I can surprise someone else too.
What keeps you motivated and inspired as a writer?
I love history and research. I’m a former librarian. What I really enjoy about writing historical fiction and historical fantasy is being able to take little known parts of the past (medieval mapmakers, for instance, or a long-ago plague) and build stories around them. Inspiration is everywhere.
What are you working on right now?
My fifth book, Dragonfruit, came out on April 9. It’s a fantasy inspired by Pacific island mythology, and it’s a story I’ve been thinking about writing for a very long time. I’m also working on a new book, but it’s early on in the process. More soon!
Do you have any advice for future applicants?
Just apply. A literary fellowship sounds fancy, not meant for someone who writes about seadragons and ghosts and magic tattoos. But I write about those things and here we are. The Oregon Literary Fellowship supports good stories, and if you believe in yours, you should go for it. They 100% won’t give you a fellowship if you don’t apply for it.
EXCERPT FROM DRAGONFRUIT
Hanalei sketched the blue seadragon first. Its long, whiskery feelers were silver, so too were its tail, frill, and horns. Horns curled like a ram’s, not pointed like a devil’s. Like the green one, it had a pair of stunted legs in the front, none in the back. How very interesting. She leaned forward, sticking her head into the crevice. Legless seadragons were much more common, but sometimes, when the Nominomi was at its clearest, dragons like these were visible walking along the seafloor. Could they travel on land, she wondered? And if so, how far? How fast? Could they climb walls, like giant geckos? Uneasy, she eyed the surrounding stone and drew a little farther back behind the rocks.
The pearl seadragon shot straight into the air, spinning and spiraling, before falling into the water with a splash. Hanalei shook water droplets from the parchment, smiling. A smile that faded when the red seadragon called out to the others, the sound high and pure. Dragonsong. The sound sent shivers down Hanalei’s neck.
A moment’s hesitation before she reached for her soundcatcher. A soundcatcher was precisely that. It captured something that could be heard: a child’s laughter or the sound of the sea, or music. It had been a gift from Sam when they were children, Hanalei eight and Sam nine, carved during an afternoon spent at the beach. She had watched the seadragons come to life in his hands as he whittled the wood away with his father’s knife. “You love them so much,” Sam had said, tossing it to her with a quick grin. “Keep it.” A casual offering, one he had likely long forgotten. It was her most prized possession. She held it to her lips and breathed in, not out, knowing it would come to nothing. Tamarindi magic, no matter how small, only showed itself on Tamarind—
Hanalei caught herself. Why was she like this today? Nearly weeping when Moa called her sister, thinking too much of home. She knew better. The past was the past, unchangeable. Most days, she kept Tamarind tucked down and buried deep, where hard memories belonged.
JUDGE’S COMMENTS
“Every character introduced in Makiia Lucier’s Dragonfruit was intriguing, making me want to know more about them, about their own stories. The lore of the dragons, the setting of the world, felt fully fleshed out, like Lucier had given me not a handful of words, but a window into a real place, full of real creatures and people. It’s an amazing conjuring trick for a writer to be able to pull all that off, and Lucier appeared to do it effortlessly. Simply stated, it was a beautifully written joy to read.”
– Lish McBride
