Cave Canem and EcoTheo Collective are pleased to announce the 2024 Starshine and Clay Fellowship, an initiative providing financial and development support to emerging Black poets, and fundraising opportunities for Cave Canem. Named in honor of Cave Canem elder Lucille Clifton, the Starshine and Clay Fellowship was developed to speak to the mentorship Clifton offered Cave Canem Fellows during her tenure as Faculty at the Cave Canem Retreat.

Award: Two recipients will each receive $500 for a featured reading at the 2024 Wonder Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. Fellowship recipients will also receive a one-on-one consultation with our judge, aracelis girmay. Additionally, the fellows’ work will be published in the summer 2024 issue of EcoTheo Review.

Deadline: Applications must be received via Submittable by December 17, 2023, 11:59 pm EST.

Entry Fee: There is no entry fee for this fellowship application.

Judge: aracelis girmay

aracelis girmay (2003) is a poet and teacher who makes work across genres. In collaboration with artist Valentina Améstica and the Center for Book Arts, a limited edition chapbook of her new work is out this fall (2023). She is the editor of So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (Haymarket, 2023) and is the editor-at-large of the Blessing the Boats Selections. She is also on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund. For her work, girmay was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.