"We selected simóne and Taylor because their work is relevant to today’s times, and their eyes are on the horizon of what community looks like for Black writers."
In a 2003 interview with The New Yorker, famed writer Toni Morrison shared that finding time to write was a challenge that she had to push through.
She said, “I stole time to write. Writing was my other job—I always kept it over there, away from my ‘real’ work as an editor or teacher.”
Her plight easily describes the experiences of many Black writers who don’t have the opportunities to devote to writing without the burden of lack of time, economic freedom, and privacy.
The Hurston/Wright Writer-in-Residence (WIR) Program aims to provide published Black writers with dedicated space and funding to focus on their writing craft and individual writing projects. This program strives to enable them to make meaningful impact on emerging Black writers and the community-at-large through workshops and community events.
Started in 2022, the Hurston/Wright Writer-in-Residence (WIR) Program continues to evolve as a viable pipeline of Black writers through intentional peer-supported engagement, culturally competent mentorship, and financial support.
Selected writers enjoy opportunities to connect with other writers, share their craft with emerging writers as workshop instructors, present their published work with the surrounding community and find support through valuable mentorship opportunities.
"It's an honor to be a 2024 writer-in-residence with the Hurston/Wright Foundation. As a young person, Hurston/Wright was one of the first organizations that fostered and held my curiosities, explorations, and experiments with poetic language."
Learn more about our 2024 Writers-in-Residence here: Hurston_Wright Foundation Announces 2024 Writers-in-Residence
2024 Writer-in-Residence
2024 Writer-in-Residence
2023 Writer-in-Residence
2023 Writer-in-Residence
B. Sharise Moore
Imani Cezanne
2022 Writer-in-Residence
2022 Writer-in-Residence
Destiny O. Birdsong
Shayla Lawz
Writers-in-Residence in the Community
Our First Year
In our first year of the WiR program, we worked in partnership with vetted colleges/universities, Rutgers and Virginia Tech, The WiR program, sponsored in part by Hachette Book group and Amazon, provided our inaugural writers-in-residence with free housing, a stipend of $15,000 and extended time to focus on writing projects. Our inaugural writers-in-residence, Destiny O. Birdsong, and Shayla Lawz, were selected by a panel of esteemed Black writers who vetted a list of candidates for consideration.
Shayla taught six summer Hurston/Wright writing fellows at Virginia Tech in a multigenre writing workshop and presented a reading from her book that summer in June.
Destiny taught a multigenre writing workshop during the summer of 2022 at Rutgers University-Newark where she taught and mentored eight summer Hurston/Wright writing fellows, including two writers who received free tuition to attend and named Hachette fellows, sponsored by Hachette Book group.
Destiny presented a community reading of her work and was featured on the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s podcast, The Black Writer’s Studio. Earlier in the year she and Shayla signed copies of their book at the Hurston/Wright booth during the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Philadelphia.
In 2023
Currently, our writers-in-residence are selected by the Hurston/Wright staff, led by the executive director. Publications, community work and experience teaching and engaging with other writers are the primary areas of consideration for a residency. In addition, we consider the writer’s relevance to the current social landscape and their potential to apply their expertise to the programming scheduled for the organization’s programming season. Teaching applicants, past Hurston/Wright honorees, and writers connected to Hurston/Wright through community work are considered for this opportunity. Residents serve for a six-month season and receive $15, 000.
Our 2023 Writer-in-Residence, B. Sharise Moore worked on building a database of children’s book and YA novels written by Black authors that center the experiences of people of African descent. She debuted the database Summer 2023 during a workshop she led during Hurston/Wright’s inaugural #ReadBlackBooks Summer Symposium for parents and educators.
Imani Cezanne, our second 2023 Writer-in-Residence, taught a virtual poetry writing workshop during Hurston/Wright Foundation’s annual summer Writers Weekend. In addition, she performed during the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s 2023 Legacy Awards at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington DC.
Publications by Hurston/Wright Writers-in-Residence
