We’re thrilled to introduce the 2026 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients with individual profile features on our blog. Out-of-state judges spent several months evaluating the 400+ applications we received, and selected eight writers and two publishers to receive grants of $4,000 each. Literary Arts also awarded two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each. The 2026 Fellowship recipients were recognized at the 2026 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony on April 20, and a public reading event featuring this year’s Fellows will take place on Monday, June 29 at the Literary Arts Bookstore.
Follow along as we roll out profiles of this year’s Fellows throughout the summer to learn more about some of the most exciting writers at work today in Oregon. And if you feel inspired after reading, consider applying for a 2027 Oregon Literary Fellowship yourself—applications are now open and will close on August 7, 2026.
Jae Nichelle (she/her) is a 2026 Oregon Literary Fellow in Poetry and the recipient of the Writer of Color Fellowship. She is the author of God Themselves (Andrews McMeel, 2023) and the chapbook The Porch (As Sanctuary) (YesYes Books, 2019). She was a finalist for a 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship and won the inaugural John Lewis Writing Award in poetry from the Georgia Writers Association. She believes in all of our collective ability to contribute to radical change.
Q & A WITH LITERARY ARTS
What excites you the most about receiving an Oregon Literary Fellowship?
This fellowship comes at a pivotal time in my writing life where I have a number of ideas for personal and collaborative literary projects and was unsure of my path forward. Not only has the Oregon Literary Fellowship provided needed financial support for me and my work, but I am so excited about being connected to Literary Arts and to an amazing community of supportive Oregon writers. It’s so crucial that we share resources and ideas and create more opportunities to sustain local artists.
How would you describe your writing process or creative practice?
As of late, my creative practice involves trying new things, investing in indie authors and media, being involved in my community, being informed, and being nosy. When my life is full of experiences, art, care, and information, the words come easily as natural responses/engagement with those stimuli.
What authors or books have shaped you the most as a writer?
Zora Neale Hurston’s literary work and anthropology changed my understanding of what a writer can do and be very early in my life. June Jordan is my go-to reference for being a politically engaged writer. Toni Morrison does things with words I didn’t think could be done! Reading her work stretches my imagination.
Are there any Oregon writers you look to for motivation or inspiration?
Absolutely. Brianna Renae—the organizer of The People’s Poets and the author of Her Way with Words; Julia Gaskill—the organizer of Slamlandia and author of Weirdo; Imani J, who is doing amazing work in the print magazine space; and Christopher Diaz, who I consider an honorary Oregon writer because of his incredible and thoughtful impact in the greater Portland area literary community. Camille T. McDaniel and Jane Belinda have started a beautiful local press. Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman is a gift.
What writing projects are you working on right now?
My second full-length collection of poetry, Grownfolk Blues, will be published in October 2026 via Host Publications. I could not be more excited about this experimental, musical project! Please stay tuned for the order link and more information: www.jaenichelle.com.
Do you have any advice for future applicants?
When I want my application to be the best it can be, I look to my friends and writing community for support. We edit each other’s work and exchange thoughts so we have the strongest submissions possible. After that, it’s out of our control, but working together always makes the process a little more fun.
WRITING SAMPLE EXCERPT
Love Song Golden Shovel
after Sister Rosetta Tharpe
I choose to imagine us a fresh field of seeds sown we didn’t
know were their kind’s sole survivors. loving like we invented it,
our fertile soil the base for each new nation we realize from rain
mirages. I give every flower your name, collecting the rain
for christening. how I imagine us god’s favorites. oh,
how I imagine us. eventually wheat, rice, mustards, yes,
then the birds, the deer, all this life we didn’t see coming, didn’t
think possible, but yes, we yell though no one can hear it,
look at all we built out of rain, look at all we built out of rain.
JUDGE’S CITATION
“Jae Nichelle’s generous poems are textured with playfulness, ambition, and song. Whether experimenting with a coming-of-age poetry musical or tackling intergenerational loss via inherited forms, her work is grounded in the knowledge that joy and grief are entwined. Unpacking complexities of lineage, money, girlhood, and forgiveness, she speaks in a clear voice to the ache and beauty of being alive. Nichelle is a poet who insists on the enduring presence of music.”
— Patrycja Humienik
Applications for the 2027 Oregon Literary Fellowships are now open. The deadline to apply is Friday, August 7, 2026.
