What is the Zora Neale Hurston Writing Fellowship at Bard College?
The Zora Neale Hurston Writing Fellowship enables writers from all disciplines who have not had the opportunity to develop their scholarship, and supports writers who are currently employed as adjuncts or visiting professors with terminal degrees and who have not yet published a book-length work. For three-weeks during the summer, fellows reside on Bard’s beautiful Hudson Valley campus. Both housing and meals are provided. During their residency, each Hurston Fellow spends their time working, writing, and researching independently on dedicated projects.
Clockwise from top left: 2023 Zora Neale Hurston Writing Fellows at Bard College Amira Pierce, Natallia Stelmak Schabner, Alcira Forero-Peña, Juliana Nalerio, and Yu-Yun Hsieh.
2023 Hurston Fellows
The Zora Neale Hurston Writing Fellowship at Bard College welcomes its cohort of five writers, Alcira Forero-Peña, Yu-Yun Hsieh, Juliana Nalerio, Amira Pierce, and Natallia Stelmak Schabner, this summer. The Hurston Fellows are in residence for three weeks from June 8 through June 28, 2023.
2023 Hurston Fellows
“My work is about the people from a small place in the Caribbean that has changed a lot from the 1970s, and yet in April 2023 its population of Afro-Colombians do not have running water while wealthy new ‘neighbors’ do not seem to have that problem,” says Alcira Forero-Peña about her Hurston Fellowship project. “The town of Barú in the ‘island’ of Barú is being sold as ‘paradisiac’ and ‘pristine’ for and by ‘blancos’ or ‘white’ Colombians and foreigners, who little by little bought land on the island, by diverse means, and today’s native ‘baruleros’ have been left without land that used to be a source of their livelihood. The sea, a vital source of food and some income, increasingly is corralled by the hotels and villas whose owners do not want their guests to be ‘bothered’ with boats passing through so fishing is dwindling. What else has changed? The world has changed in and around Baruleros and this is the focus of my work.”
While in residence as a Hurston Fellow, Yu-Yun Hsieh is working on a novel about a foreigner’s adventures in New York City.
As a Hurston Fellow, Juliana Nalerio is working on a literary and historiographic project to read in and instigate a wild alternative to Humanism’s universal man: The Modern Brown Girl. She is interested in anthropological and historiographic approaches to literature and literary theory, as well as sexuality, visual cultural studies, and critical race and ethnic studies.
During her residency, Amira Pierce is working on Genealogy of Hope, a research/memoir project that focuses on her relationship with two ancestors: Wesley Shropshire, a great-great-great grandfather on her father’s side who lived in Rome, Georgia during the US Civil War and was a slave-owner who took a principled and alienating stance supporting the Union, as well as the story of Sheikh Ahmed Aref El-Zein, a great grandfather on her mother’s side who brought the first printing press to Southern Lebanon and published the journal Al-Irfan, which shared a relatively progressive version of Islam with the world.
In her dissertation “For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience and Self,” Natallia Stelmak Schabner argued that Narrativity—an open-ended, dynamic mental process of form finding and coherence seeking over time—is essential for experience of one’s Self. She illustrated this process at work in the interpretation and imaginative experience of literary works, and in subsequent publications extended these ideas, developing connections to theories of emotion, literary appreciation, action, and contemporary digital technology. “In my project, I plan to integrate the argument in my dissertation with this broader body of work, toward the aim of drafting a book manuscript on Narrativity as a core psychological capacity,” she says of her work as a Hurston Fellow.
About the Zora Neale Hurston Writing Fellowship at Bard College
The Hurston Fellowship recognizes the particular challenges that BIPOC women encounter in the academy. Few BIPOC women are tenured or tenure track and most occupy precarious positions at their academic institutions. It is not the aim of the fellowship to increase the number of BIPOC women to the pool of tenure and tenure-track applicants. The program exists to assist these underrepresented voices into the publication of their works.
Founded and directed by Visiting Associate Professor of Literature and American Studies Donna Ford Grover, the Hurston Fellowship is a 3-week residential program designed to enable writers from all disciplines who have not had the opportunity to develop their scholarship, specifically, those who are without access to sabbaticals or their institution’s research funding.
Call for Applicants
Prospective Fellows should submit a vita, a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with their work, and an abstract of the project they wish to work on during the three-week residency. The abstract should not exceed 2000 words. Applicants need a college or university affiliation and should have a minimum of five years of teaching as an adjunct, lecturer or visiting professor. The Application deadline is April 15, 2024. All applicants will be notified of the admission Committee’s decision by May 15, 2024.
To submit materials or for questions please email [email protected].
2023 ZORA NEALE HURSTON FELLOWS
Alcira Forero-Peña.
Alcira Forero-Peña
Alcira Forero-Peña received her PhD in anthropology, with a dissertation “To Stand on Their Own. Women’s Higher Education in Contemporary Kerala, India,” from The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School in 2004 and an MA in cultural anthropology from Hunter College, CUNY in 1994. She has been an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Social Science at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY since 2010, where she has taught Cultural Anthropology, Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean, and Urban Anthropology. She has also taught at Lehman College, CUNY; University of Colorado at Denver; and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor. She has been the recipient of a Carnegie Grant, Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY Research Award to conduct ethnographic research conducted in Cartagena (Barú Island), Colombia; among others. Her publications include “Of Beauty and ‘Beauties’: Female Identities and Body Image in Colombia,” in Body Image and Identity in Contemporary Societies: Psychoanalytic, Social, Cultural and Aesthetic Perspectives (Routledge, 2015), and “Kerala (India) Notes for a Future Comparative Study between Their Societies” in Colombia e India en Perspectiva (2009). She has presented and given lectures in India, Canada, Argentina, and throughout the US.
Yu-Yun Hsieh.
Yu-Yun Hsieh
Yu-Yun Hsieh received her MPhil and PhD in Comparative Literature, with a Film Studies Certificate and dissertation on “Ang Lee’s America: A Study of Adaptation and Transculturation,” from The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School in 2019; her MA in English from National Taiwan Normal University in 2007; and her BA in English from National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, in 2004. She has been an adjunct assistant professor of English at Baruch College since 2019 and an adjunct assistant professor of Liberal Studies at New York University since 2022. She has received a Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Fellowship, CUNY Writing Across Curriculum Fellowship, and a Study Abroad Scholarship from the Ministry of Education Taiwan, and the 2008 Taipei Literature Award, among many other honors. She has presented research in Taiwan, UK, Germany, and throughout the US. Her publications include Chinese translations of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (2014) and The Unwinding by George Packer (2022); “Memory à la Americana: From Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Be Kind Rewind” in Refocus: The Films of Michel Gondry (Edinburgh University Press, 2020); and a New York Times Book Review of Robert Coover’s Going for a Beer: “Cervantes and Snow White Walk into a Bar” (2018), among others. She also performs in music and acting roles.
Juliana Nalerio.
Juliana Nalerio
Juliana Nalerio received her PhD and MA cum laude in Advanced English Studies: Languages & Cultures in Contact from the University of Valladolid/Salamanca in 2015; her B.A. in humanities from the New College of Florida, The Honors College in 2011; and is currently a PhD candidate and Research Fellow in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. She has taught as an adjunct in the History Department of the City College of New York, and a teaching assistant at Stanford University, University of Valladolid (Spain), and the University of Salamanca (Spain). She was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Carter/Johnson Library and Collection, an EDGE Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University, the recipient of a research grant awarded by Spanish Government (MINECO) Research and a New York City Teaching Fellowship awarded by the City of New York, among other honors. She has given lectures and presentations in Spain, Romania, Turkey, Portugal, the Netherlands, UK, and US. Her publications include “Anti-Black Racism, From Cuba to Catalunya” coauthored with Martin Rodrigo y Alharilla in Cultural Legacies of Slavery in Modern Spain (SUNY Press, forthcoming) and a book project tentatively titled Violence and Representation in “The Americas” Literary Response to Globalization (Rodopi-BRILL, forthcoming). She is also currently a docent at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection, editor at The Journal of Transnational American Studies, and editor at The Creative Process.
Amira Pierce.
Amira Pierce
Amira Pierce received her MFA in fiction from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011, MA in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing–Fiction from San Francisco State University in 2008, and BA in English and American Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from New York University (NYU) in 2002. She has been Assistant Director of International Courses and Senior Language Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program at NYU since 2018. She has been the recipient of an NYU Global Research Initiative research grant, The Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction in Colorado Review, and the College of Humanities and Sciences Phi Kappa Phi Scholarship from Virginia Commonwealth University. She received three honorable mentions for Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Contest, Short Story Award for New Writers, and Fiction Open, among other honors. She has presented or been invited as a guest writer/lecturer to conferences and institutions throughout the US, as well as in the United Arab Emirates as part of the NYUAD Writing Studies Working Group. Her publications include “The Monster Swallows Itself” in forthcoming Makeout Creek, “Before the Bombs” in The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human: Tales from Many Muslim Lands (Penguin Southeast Asia, 2020), and “Bus Stop” in The Evil One (Makeout Creek Books, 2016), among many other print and online publications. Her short film “Art over Zoom,” cowritten and coproduced with Lee Cohen was elected for Big Apple Film Festival, New York, New York, in 2020.
Natallia Stelmak Schabner.
Natallia Stelmak Schabner
Natallia Stelmak Schabner received her PhD, with a dissertation “For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience and Self,” from The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School in 2017, MA with honors in International Relations from CUNY in 2004, and BS in International Relations from Belorussian Trade and Economics University in 1999. She has been an adjunct assistant professor at CUNY teaching philosophy courses since 2006 and served on the Editorial Board of Aesthetica Universalis, Moscow State University since 2021. She has also taught at Hunter College and was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State International Institute of Labor and Social Relations, Belarus. She has received a PSC CUNY Adjunct-CET Professional Development Fund Grant, NEH CARES Grant, and CUNY Graduate Teaching Fellowship. She has presented her research in Russia, the Netherlands, and US. Her publications include “The Virtuality of Experience and Active Reconstruction” (2021), “Narrativity in Thought and Action” (2020) and “Resolving the Paradox of Fiction: Active Reconstruction and Emotional Dissonance” (2019 in Aesthetica Universalis, among other publications.
Natallia Stelmak Schabner.
Natallia Stelmak Schabner
Natallia Stelmak Schabner received her PhD, with a dissertation “For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience and Self,” from The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School in 2017, MA with honors in International Relations from CUNY in 2004, and BS in International Relations from Belorussian Trade and Economics University in 1999. She has been an adjunct assistant professor at CUNY teaching philosophy courses since 2006 and served on the Editorial Board of Aesthetica Universalis, Moscow State University since 2021. She has also taught at Hunter College and was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State International Institute of Labor and Social Relations, Belarus. She has received a PSC CUNY Adjunct-CET Professional Development Fund Grant, NEH CARES Grant, and CUNY Graduate Teaching Fellowship. She has presented her research in Russia, the Netherlands, and US. Her publications include “The Virtuality of Experience and Active Reconstruction” (2021), “Narrativity in Thought and Action” (2020) and “Resolving the Paradox of Fiction: Active Reconstruction and Emotional Dissonance” (2019 in Aesthetica Universalis, among other publications.
2022 Zora Neale Hurston Fellows
Danielle Elizabeth Chin.
Danielle Elizabeth Chin
Danielle Elizabeth Chin graduated Magna Cum Laude from Marymount Manhattan College in May 2013 with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in English and World Literatures and a minor in Creative Writing before receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from The New School in Creative Writing with a concentration in creative nonfiction. She has been an Adjunct Professor in Creative Writing at Marymount Manhattan College since 2015, where she has taught Introduction to Creative Writing I, Introduction to Creative Writing II, Intermediate Creative Writing, an Independent Study in Nonfiction, and a Special Topics course. She has also served as a Writing Assistant at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and for the CUNY EDGE program. Her other professional experiences include working as a research assistant for poet David Lehman, a teaching assistant for novelist Sigrid Nunez, and an assistant at a literary agency. Her work has appeared in The Inquisitive Eater, The Best American Poetry Blog, and Side B Magazine.
Neşe Devenot.
Neşe Devenot ’09
Neşe Devenot ’09 received her PhD in 2015 from the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied psychedelic philosophy, the literary history of chemical self-experimentation (“trip reports”), and radical poetics. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bard College in philosophy and literature. Devenot is a Postdoctoral Associate at Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS), University of Cincinnati, and is a Lecturer and Medical Humanities Program Assistant at Pennsylvania State University. She has held positions as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Medicine, Society, and Culture, in the Bioethics Department at the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University (2018-20) and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Digital Humanities in the Humanities Program and English Department at University of Puget Sound (2015-18). Her research explores the function of metaphor and other literary devices in verbal accounts of psychedelic experiences. She was awarded “Best Humanities Publication in Psychedelic Studies” from Breaking Convention in 2016 and received the Article Prize for best publication in Romanticism Studies from European Romantic Review in 2020. She was a 2015-16 Research Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Timothy Leary Papers and a Research Fellow with the New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, where she participated in the first qualitative study of patient experiences. She was a founding member of the MAPS Graduate Student Association, which she moderated during 2011-13, and has presented on psychedelics at conferences in the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, the Netherlands, and Australia.
Shoshanna Edwards-Alexander.
Shoshanna Edwards-Alexander
Shoshanna Edwards-Alexander received her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Saint Joseph’s University in 2005, M.S.W. from University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work in 1995, and B.A. in sociology and history/gender studies from Saint Lawrence University in 1993. Before teaching, she worked as a social worker and counselor. She is a Visiting and Senior Adjunct Professor at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where she teaches in the Haub School of Business, School of Health and Education, and College of Arts and Sciences. She also serves as a diversity consultant at Saint Joseph’s University. Her research interests include anti-racist and social justice pedagogies, womanist and feminist epistemologies, teacher preparation educational programs, and intersectionality within leadership development. She presents on topics including leadership and student advocacy; mentoring and feminist perspectives; global engagement, training, and development; and social work and mental health. She has won several awards and special recognitions including the Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Teaching for the Gender Studies Program Department at Saint Joseph’s University (2014).
Mona Kareem.
Mona Kareem
Mona Kareem holds a PhD and MA in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a BA in English and Comparative Literature from the American University of Kuwait. She is a research fellow at Center for Humanities at Tufts University (2021-2022) and a recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts literary grant. She has taught at Princeton, University of Maryland College Park, SUNY Binghamton, Rutgers, and Bronx Community College. She was an affiliated research fellow at the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies at the Freie Universität of Berlin. Kareem is the author of three poetry collections. Her most recent publication Femme Ghosts is a trilingual chapbook published by Publication Studio in Fall 2019. Her work has been translated into nine languages, and appeared in Brooklyn Rail, Michigan Quarterly, Fence, Ambit, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Asymptote, Words Without Borders, Poetry International, PEN English, Modern Poetry in Translation, Two Lines, and Specimen. She has won several awards and honors including a nomination for the Best Translated Book Award in 2016 for her English translation of Ashraf Fayadh’s Instructions Within, which was reprinted by English PEN in 2017.
Madhu H. Kaza.
Madhu H. Kaza
Madhu H. Kaza received her MFA in fiction, M.Phil and MA in Comparative Literature from New York University, and a BA in English from the University of Michigan. She serves as Associate Director of Microcollege Program and Faculty Development at the Bard Prison Initiative and teaches in the MFA program at Columbia University. Born in Andhra Pradesh, India, Kaza is a writer, translator, artist and educator based in New York City. She is a translator of the feminist Telugu writers Volga and Vimala. She is the editor of Kitchen Table Translation and her own writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, Guernica, The Yale Review, Two Lines, Gulf Coast, The Margins, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of grants and awards including a non-fiction fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Yaddo residency. She was the founding director of the Bard Microcollege at Brooklyn Public Library and has taught at New York University, The New School, and at Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking, among other institutions.
Obi Nwizu.
Obi Nwizu
Obi Nwizu received her MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom and her BA in Print Journalism from Georgia State University. Born in Anambra State, Nigeria, raised in Atlanta, Georgia, but currently calling Harlem home, Nwizu is a lover of month-long international vacations, vegan food, afrobeat, and rom-coms. When not writing, she teaches creative writing for the City University of New York and composition writing for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Selected publications include “Gathered Pieces of the Sun” in The Almbec, “Grapeseed Fields” in Torch Literary Arts, and “Lust Painted Walls” in Imagine Curve.
Dianca London Potts.
Dianca London Potts
Dianca London Potts earned her MFA in fiction from The New School, MA in English and MA in Humanities from Arcadia University, and BA in English from Temple University. She is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Writing Department at Pratt Institute and teaches writing courses at Eugene Lang Liberal Arts College at The New School and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a VONA Voices alumna, and the former online editor of Well-Read Black Girl. Her words have been featured in Lenny Letter, The Village Voice, Vice, Shondaland, and elsewhere. Her memoir, Planning for the Apocalypse, is forthcoming from 37 Ink / Simon and Schuster.