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.
Jeffree Morel is a 2026 Oregon Literary Fellow in Drama and the recipient of the C.H. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship. Jeffree is a creative writer and educator based in Oregon, raised in southern California. He graduated from Chapman University with a BA in screenwriting, and minors in psychology and English. He’s also obtained certifications in permaculture design and yoga teaching and hosts workshops on ethical foraging and forest bathing. His fiction and poetry have been featured in publications such as the South Settle Emerald, Weber: The Contemporary West, and Rabble Review. His blog is Foraging for More on Substack.
Q & A WITH LITERARY ARTS
What excites you the most about receiving an Oregon Literary Fellowship?
It’s the first major award for my writing I’ve won after nearly a decade of slowly ramping up submissions. That provides a huge level of encouragement that I’m on the right track and can find support for the work that matters to me as my craft continues to improve. Plus, it’s invited me into the Portland literary community to a degree I would’ve been too timid to assume for myself.
How would you describe your writing process or creative practice?
I try to journal around every day or every other day in the early morning or late evenings, jotting down half-baked poems or ideas that came through my recent experiences. When I decide which idea to pursue with more purpose (the hard part is committing!), I’ll come at it from different angles, dictating into a voice recorder on walks, writing on paper, and editing on my phone or computer. As the early infatuation with a project wears off, I’ll set a finish line for myself to finish the draft and send it off to a variety of contests, magazines, and friends for feedback. Even this summary makes the process feel more organized and controlled than it actually feels, however.
What authors or books have shaped you the most as a writer?
Reading Catch-22 in high school was pivotal for me, seeing my sense of humor reflected in a work of literature that could also pose serious societal critiques and move me to tears. Some of my other major influences include Kurt Vonnegut, Sinclair Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Milan Kundera, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and James Baldwin, as well as filmmakers like the Coen brothers, Charlie Kaufman, and Stanley Kubrick.
Are there any Oregon writers you look to for motivation or inspiration?
I’m drawing a bit of a blank on this one, although I admire many of the contemporaries I’ve seen at slam poetry events. Does Matt Groening of The Simpsons count? I like but don’t love Ken Kesey. Right now I’m reading a book of poetry by former University of Oregon professor Dorianne Laux and loving it.
What writing projects are you working on right now?
I just completed a draft of my first full-length poetry collection Breakup Flavors. Now I’m transitioning to a series of dark animal fables dealing with grief and ecological collapse I’m calling Animals Like Us. On the back-burner for now, but not for long, are polishing my winning screenplay In Your Dreams for production and honing my first forays into creative nonfiction.
Do you have any advice for future applicants?
Trust your voice and polish your material. While contests always recommend reviewing past winners, I find it easy to doubt my material for not mapping neatly onto what’s won before—as I did for this award. Doing the work to make the first pages the most compelling they could be, whether or not they were like what I thought the judges wanted to see, paid off in a huge way.
WRITING SAMPLE EXCERPT
JUDGE’S CITATION
“This screenplay excerpt is wonderfully crafted, sophisticated, witty, and subtly sexy. It becomes a true page-turner about a young man falling in love while trying to overcome profound grief, inviting the audience to respond with compassion, empathy, and recognition. The story introduces us to a world and to characters who feel fully realized as we travel through a linear plot punctuated by dreams and fantasies. These dream sequences and unconventional relationships create a script rich in quick wit, longing, and an understated, anti-establishment edge. It is a pleasure to read, and it reveals a writer who approaches scriptwork with notable ease.”— Ronan Noone
