Introducing The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil 2023-2024 Emerging Writer Fellows

We are thrilled to announce the nine exceptional recipients of The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil 2023–2024 Emerging Writer Fellowships. Henry Chapman, Israel Daramola, Caprice Gray, Vida James, Monique Laban, Virginia Marshall, Niv Sekar, Gnesis Villar, and Nicole Zhu will each receive a $5,000 grant, editorial mentorship, monthly dinners with distinguished professionals from the publishing industry, a membership to The Center’s Writers Studio, publication in an anthology of the Fellows’ work, two public readings, and more.

The Fellows were chosen from an impressive pool of over 750 applicants in a blind judging process by authors Jeremy Kamps, Alanna Schubach, and Lisa Hsiao Chen, all alumni of the Fellowship.

Since 2011, the Fellowship has nurtured the careers of a diverse group of New York City-based writers, with a high track-record of success. Between the 108 Fellows who have participated in the program, 58 books will be published by the end of 2024, many of which were made possible through connections facilitated by The Center for Fiction. Alumni have received prestigious honors and awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the Whiting Award, the NAACP Image Award, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the Gotham Prize, and the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35.

Meet the 2023-2024 Fellows

Henry Chapman

Henry Chapman

Henry Chapman’s work has been described as “Making a case for rigorous attentiveness to the interaction among forms” (Michelle Grabner, Artforum). Solo and two-person exhibitions of his paintings have been presented by Kate Werble Gallery, T293 Gallery, Labs Contemporary Art, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, among others. His writing has appeared in Hyperallergic, Artcritical, and Paper magazine. He studied painting at The Cooper Union and Yale University. This spring, he completed an MFA in fiction at Brooklyn College. Chapman has received support from the Philip Guston and Musa McKim Named Residency at Yaddo, the Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Prize at Yale University, and the Hans G. and Thordis W. Burckhardt Foundation. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Laura.
Israel Daramola

Israel Daramola

Israel Daramola is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York, originally from Tallahassee, Florida. He’s written about music, film, and television for Defector, GQ, the Ringer, Pitchfork, Spin, and Rolling Stone. He is currently working on his first novel.
Caprice Gray

Caprice Gray

Caprice has a BA from Yale, a Master of Science from Harvard, and an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. After a period in another field, she has recently returned to writing. Her work was longlisted for the 2023 First Pages Prize. She is from traditional Wecksquaesgeek territory, Harlem, New York.
Vida James

Vida James

Vida James is Puerto Rican by way of New York, a social worker by trade. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. She is a 2023 Periplus Fellow and the winner of the 2021 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artists Award. Her writing has been supported by Storyknife, Tin House, Bread Loaf, MASS MoCA and VONA. She has work appearing or forthcoming in Witness, Story, New England Review, Epiphany, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn where she is at work on her novel-in-stories.
Monique Laban

Monique Laban

Monique Laban’s fiction and essays have appeared in the Offing, Catapult, the Florida Review, Clarkesworld, and elsewhere. She was a 2023 Tennessee Williams Scholar in Fiction at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a 2022 Hedgebrook Writer in Residence, and an attendee of the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Viable Paradise Workshop, and VONA. She lives in the Upper East Side and is currently at work on a novel.
Virginia Marshall

Virginia Marshall

Virginia Marshall is writing a novel about women who turn into deer. She received her MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and works at Brooklyn Public Library, where she makes their podcasts. Her writing and audio has appeared in Catapult, Harvard Review, Essay Daily, NPR, and more.
Niv Sekar

Niv Sekar

Niv Sekar is an artist and writer. She grew up in the South and now resides in New York, watching the winters grow warmer. Her work is occupied with movement and time, queerness, boundaries, and the speculative. She is grateful to have been supported by Tin House, Clarion, MacDowell and Kundiman. She has published comics with Shortbox and P&M Press. Her work is often occupied with queer brown girls navigating strange and familiar worlds.
Gnesis Villar

Gnesis Villar

Gnesis Villar is a native New Yorker raised on cartoons, unlimited Internet access, and her mother’s horror DVD collection. When she’s not writing scary things happening to scary girls, which is most days as a perpetual procrastinator, she reviews books as a freelancer. Her speculative fiction has been published in One Teen Story and FIYAH. Find her at @v_gnesis on Twitter.
Nicole Zhu

Nicole Zhu

Nicole Zhu is a writer and engineer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Eater, Electric Literature, the Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2022 Pigeon Pages Flash Contest and has received support from Tin House, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.