Announcing the 2025 class of Periplus fellows.

Every year, Periplus awards 48 mentorships to writers of color living and working in the United States, pairing each one with a member of the collective, an established writer who will meet monthly with their mentee to foster community, support their writing practice, and advise on the nitty gritty of making a career as an artist.

This year, the collective’s fifth, the fellows were selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants. Literary Hub is pleased to announce the 2025 class of Periplus Fellows, listed below:

a.n.jwi (they/them), is a jack[fruit]-of-many trades with a passion for the Monstrous & Strange and a penchant for melancholy, particularly in [digital] spaces where flesh and machinery collide, fuse, repel, and/or shift. Outside of their passion projects, their labor is often in the context of grassroots organizing and activism– they are honored to be currently involved with the Banned Knowledge Barrio Collective, 18 Million Rising, and the Clean Air Club. a.n.jwi’s mentor is Vincente Perez.

Adrienne Jacobson Oliver is a poet-researcher whose work emphasizes the material qualities of resonance and silence. Employing speculative methodologies that blend language, performance, and visual art, her writing examines how matrilineal expressions challenge and transcend archival limitations, focusing on how B/blackness articulates itself through the vernacular, the gestural, and the profoundly sonic. Adrienne’s mentor is Rajiv Mohabir.

Alexandria Valentine is a writer and editor from Chicago. They earned a Master of Fine Arts at the Columbia University School of the Arts, where they received the 2019 Felipe De Alba Fellowship. Alexandria is a grandchild of the Great Migration by way of Lake Village, Arkansas, and Crawford, Mississippi. Alexandria’s mentor is Arthur Rickydoc Flowers.

Ashley Espinoza is a Latina writer living in rural Colorado. She received her MFA from the University of Nebraska. She is writing a memoir about growing up with a teen mom, and about becoming a single mother. Ashley’s mentor is Tyrese Coleman.

Bella Bravo is a Colombian American fiction writer living in Seattle. They hold an MFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison and have received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Bella’s mentor is Laura van den Berg.

Brenton Sizwe Zola is a first-generation writer, researcher and multi-disciplinary artist. Informed by experiences of childhood homelessness and a lineage of African spiritual leaders, his writing has appeared in Newsweek, American Theater, Boulevard and WBUR Boston, among others. Brenton’s mentor is Kim Coleman Foote.

Candice Cho is a policymaker, lawyer, and advocate living in Los Angeles. She has written laws for New York City, the State of California, and the United States, and is working on her first book, a memoir. Candice’s mentor is Alex Marzano-Lesnevich.

Dr. Cecilia Caballero, based in Los Angeles, is a single mother, writer, poet, and teaching artist. Cecilia is a California Arts Council fellow, an Octavia Butler Earthseed fellow, an Aspen Words Emerging Writer fellow, recipient of The Kenyon Review’s inaugural Julia Alvarez scholarship, and an Abolitionist Teaching Network grantee. She is currently working on a memoir and a poetry collection. Cecilia’s mentor is Dionne Ford.

Christina Miranda is a Mexican-American writer born in El Paso and based in Austin, Texas. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BA in English and Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Watershed Review, Derailleur Press, and Warning Lines, among others. Christina’s mentor is Annell López.

Coleen Baik is a Korean American artist, designer, and writer based in NYC. She’s working on a series of essays about absences. The first essay for the collection, “Other Mother,” was published in Roxane Gay’s The Audacity this past spring. She documents her process on the-line-between.com. Coleen’s mentor is Esmé Weijun Wang.

Connie Pertuz Meza, a Colombian American writer with writing appearing in The Rumpus, Kweli Literary Journal, and elsewhere, as well as several anthologies. Connie was awarded a 2021 Kweli Fellowship, was a 2021 Aspen Words Ricardo Salinas Latinx recipient, a 2022 Pen America Emerging Fellow, a 2023 We Need Diverse Books Mentorship Finalist, and a 2024 Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellow. Connie has an early chapter book with Scholastic titled Magic Outside My Window. Connie’s mentor is Libby Flores.

Dana Marie Ingraham is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Queens, New York dancing through language in various mediums. Her performance career spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, concert dance, and national and international tours. She was recently accepted into The Seventh Wave’s Fall Digital Residency; is a recipient of a Poet and Author Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing; and was awarded as a U.S Presidential Scholar of the Arts. Dana’s mentor is Nadia Owusu.

Elina Katrin is a Syrian-Russian immigrant and the author of the poetry chapbook, If My House Has a Voice (Newfound, 2023). Her writing was selected as a semi-finalist for The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and has appeared in Electric Literature, Poetry Daily, Sundog Lit, and elsewhere. A Best of Net and a Pushcart Prize nominee, she works and organizes with Mizna as a Community Engagement Coordinator/Assistant Editor and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with a dream and her cardigan. Elina’s mentor is Erica Mena.

Emily del Carmen (Ramirez) is a queer Dominican American woman, born and raised in Brooklyn, who has always had a deep passion for writing and reading. She graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelor’s in creative writing and comparative literature and has works published in Huizache, Girls Write Now: Two Decades of True Stories From Young Female Voices and the journal Wizards in Space. In her fiction, she seeks to breathe life into complicated tales that explore the destructive and liberating potential of confronting dynamics within oneself and one’s familial relationships. Emily’s mentor is Yalitza Ferreras.

Erica “ERN” Rivera (she/they) is the author of The Ecology of Art, Strike! (tRaum Books, 2025), her forthcoming debut collection of essays. For fun, she likes to watch TV and pretend all the characters are trans. Erica’s mentor is Denne Michele Norris.

Erick Daniel Aguilar is a Honduran-American essayist and memoirist born in Tegucigalpa in 1996. His works grapple with the lived experience of precarious laborers, climate catastrophe, and non-linear writing which acknowledges where memories fail us. He is currently working on a memoir that follows his journey from the Global South to the rural American South as the son of climate migrants who lived as undocumented individuals in the United States for more than a decade. Erick’s mentor is Lauren Markham.

Evander Reyes is a queer Filipino writer from Long Beach, CA. His work has been supported by CRIT, VONA, and Tin House. He is currently at work on his debut novel. Evander’s mentor is A. E. Osworth.

Farah Abdessamad is a French Tunisian critic and writer of essays and fiction. She’s at work on an opinionated guide to Folk Art (Hoxton Mini Press, 2025), a novel and series of essays in progress on postcolonial identities, expansive genealogies, and affective art. Farah’s mentor is Youssef Rakha.

Felicity Landa is a Chicana writer with an MFA from UC Riverside Palm Desert. Her work has appeared in Pithead Chapel, The Sunlight Press, Capulet Mag, Lit Angels and elsewhere. She was a 2022 Mentee for the Latinx in Publishing mentorship program and has served as an editor for Literary Mama and The Coachella Review. She works as a screenwriter, editor, and occasional adjunct writing professor in Santa Barbara, California. You can read more of her work at felicitylanda.com. Felicity’s mentor is Adrienne Raphel.

Flávia Monteiro is a Brazilian writer based in Miami, FL. She writes about micro-abuses in parenting relationships, and about how sometimes the invisible violences leave the most painful scars. Flávia’s mentor is Deesha Philyaw.

Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, a poet of Zapoteco descent born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and raised in Fresno, California, is an Indigenous and undocumented writer. Hernandez was a graduate artist at Juan Felipe Herrera’s Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio. Hermelinda’s mentor is Felicia Zamora.

Jane Lee is a Korean American writer based in Oakland, California who spends her days building systems for organizations and her nights unraveling tangled thoughts into stories. Her writing reflects her Korean American upbringing and the courage and complexities required in finding joy and self-acceptance. Jane’s mentor is Jami Nakamura Lin.

Jemma J. Tan is a Singaporean-born educator and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Her current project is a work of book-length fiction. Jemma’s mentor is Rachel Khong.

Jonathan Ayala (he/him/él) is a Chicano writer from El Paso, Texas. His stories have been published in Foglifter, Rio Grande Review, and The Acentos Review. He also writes, “Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism,” a newsletter about art and culture responding to the HIV epidemic. Jonathan’s mentor is Zain Khalid.

José Sanchez is a gay, Afro-Puerto Rican cisgender man of a working-class background born in Newark, New Jersey who is currently living in Brooklyn. A lapsed academic who made it to Duke University as a Ph.D. student in history, he is eager to explore a writerly and intellectual life outside the ivory tower. José’s mentor is Bryan Washington.

Kevin Lê is a queer Vietnamese American writer based in Los Angeles but grew up in Orange County, and he is currently working on completing their first novel. They have received support from the Community of Writers and Tin House workshops. Kevin’s mentor is R. O. Kwon.

Kris Cho (any pronouns/형) is a queer Korean artist and educator from Mid-Missouri. They are a 2023 Best of the Net nominee, a 2024 Roots.Wounds.Words Poetry Fellow, and currently teach performance poetry at the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, where they are a writer-in-residence. Kris’s mentor is Diana Khoi Nguyen.

Layli Shirani (she/her) is a writer and civil rights lawyer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in the U.S., raised in southwestern Iran, she has now, in the words of June Jordan, “become a Palestinian / against the relentless laughter of evil.”  Layli’s writing has received support from River Teeth Journal, Aspen Words (Emerging Writer Fellow), Pen America (Emerging Voices Fellow), VCCA (50th Anniversary Fellow), Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, and the Ragdale Foundation. Layli’s mentor is Jung Hae Chae.

Leila Christine Nadir is an Afghan-American artist and writer based in Maine. Her writing has been published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), and has been supported with awards and fellowships from Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, VCCA, Bread Loaf, Tin House, the DeGroot Foundation, and Aspen Words. Leila’s mentor is Manjula Martin.

Lisbeth White is an echantivist poet based in the Pacific Northwest, whose writing ethos orients at the crossroads of healing justice, ancestral earth technologies, and mythopoetics. She is working on her first novel. Learn more about her writing at www.lisbethwrites.com. Lisbeth’s mentor is Mimi Lok.

Lorena Ortiz is a Mexican American writer, born in California and currently living in Washington DC. Her fiction has appeared in The Latino Book Review, The Ascentos Review, Konch Magazine, and elsewhere. She has received support from VONA, Tin House, Macondo and Kenyon. She is working on her debut novel. Lorena’s mentor is Hilary Leichter.

Lorraine Annette Wheat aims to explore the complexities of love through flawed characters that win. She loves writing YA romance, salsa dancing, milk chocolate, multi-colored braids, and coffee. Earning an MFA in Film and TV  from the University of Southern California led to writing and directing “Searching for Justice in LA,” “Cigarettes and Eggs,” and “Heart of Compton,” which earned the Panavision New Filmmaker Program Grant. She’s a 2024 Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories nominee, and is published in “The Hollywood Reporter,” “Variety,” “The Coachella Review,” and “Palaver Arts Magazine,” while also a 2024 fellow for the Anaphora Arts Publishing Program. Lorraine’s mentor is Adib Khorram.

Maxwell Suzuki is a queer writer who lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of the fiction chapbook, ‘Voyager 2, This is Voyager 1, Over’ (Gold Line Press, 2024), and the poetry chapbook, ‘Bust of an Athlete’ (Iron Horse Literary Review, 2024). Maxwell’s mentor is Joseph Han.

Mckendy Fils-Aimé is a New England based Haitian-American poet, organizer, and educator. His work has received support from The Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Cave Canem, and The Watering Hole. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming on YesYes Books in 2026. Mckendy’s mentor is Omotara James.

Neha Elizabeth is a first-generation Indian-American poet and physician. A self-described “compulsive” writer in her younger years, she left her craft for over a decade in pursuit of her medical career. Her return to poetry is inspired by her role as both artist and healer. Her work has appeared in Rising Phoenix Review. Neha’s mentor is Jenny Sadre Orafai.

Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko‘s essay XXYX Queer Africa: More Invisible, originally published in Juked, was included in Best American Essays 2020. Nick’s essay, A Love Letter to My Gay Black Brother Andre Lancaster, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Nick’s books: Str8 Up Queer African (2023, Scientists and Poets); Waafrika 123 (2016, Un/CUT Voices Press); Waafrika (2013, Un/CUT Voices Press). Nick’s mentor is DK Nnuro.

Phylise Smith is a poet and fiction writer from Claremont, CA. She is an Anaphora Arts Fellow, a 2024 Denver Lighthouse Book Project Graduate and a 2024 Pen Emerging Voices Fellow.  Her work centers on culture, identity and issues surrounding women of color. Phylise’s mentor is Shruti Swamy.

Rae Rowe is a queer, non-binary, gender-fluid, Viet-Am, child of a boat person-refugee, writer, movement worker, creator, and future ghost who uses their work to explore inherited trauma, liminal spaces, auntie whispers, and connect with community. Rae is also the co-founder of The Paper Lantern Project: An AAPI Gender & Reproductive Justice Mutual Aid Fund and Arts Movement which centers care and creating new narratives around these topics while working towards forming new futures of true liberation. Rae currently lives on unceded, ancestral  lands of the Dakota  people in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rae’s mentor is K-Ming Chang.

Sarah Matsui is the winner of the 2021 Sewanee Review Nonfiction Contest, the 2022 Fractured Lit Contest, and the 2023 Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Award. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, NPR Code Switch, Jacobin Magazine, The Southern Review, The Seventh Wave, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Pleiades. She is the recipient of a 2024-2025 Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Residency and a 2025 Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, where she will be working on her debut essay collection. Sarah’s mentor is Nicole Chung.

S. Isabel Choi is a 2024 NEA Creative Writing Fellow. Born in Korea, raised in New Jersey, she lives in the Bay Area with her family. She has completed a memoir and is at work on a novel, both of which consider the weight and scale of inheritance. Isabel’s mentor is Kirstin Valdez Quade.

Shaan Merchant is a writer, researcher and producer based in New York. He has written for The New York Times, Slate, Conde Nast Traveler and more, and supported research and production at Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, WNYC’s On The Media, Jigsaw Productions and others. Shaan’s mentor is E. Alex Jung.

Shreya Fadia is a Gujarati American writer, editor, and lawyer who holds an MFA in fiction from Indiana University. Her recent work explores monstrosity, motherhood, and isolation and has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Booth, Cream City Review, The Margins, Phoebe, and elsewhere. Shreya’s mentor is Megan Kamalei Kakimoto.

Sienna Morgan is a Black literary artist—poet and occasional short story writer and essayist—born, living, and writing in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Sienna’s writing focuses on the personal exploration and articulation of inspiration, and is published or planned to be published by Colorism Healing, The Black Light Project, Black Oak Society Magazine, midnight & indigo, The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture & Politics, The North Carolina Poetry Society, and more. Sienna’s mentor is Destiny O. Birdsong.

Siri Chilukuri is a journalist who writes about the climate crisis and environmental injustice. She is based in her beloved hometown of Chicago, IL. Siri’s mentor is Aurora Almendral.

Swati Sudarsan is a writer based in Brooklyn, on unceded Lenape land. She is at work on a novel, which was longlisted for the 2024 Granum Prize. Swati’s mentor is Cleyvis Natera.

T. Abeyta is a third grade dropout who didn’t get a GED but graduated with an MFA from the Institute for American Indian Arts where she studied alongside her cousin. She’s published in Hobart Pulp, the Brooklyn Review, Diagram, Boston Review, Epoch and Prairie Schooner. T.’s mentor is Angelique Stevens.

Tresa Murphy-Green is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Their poetry involves ancestry, migration, legacy, steel work,  hoodoo and our innate connection to American soil. Tresa is  City Books Spring 2024 Writer in Residence, a Watering Hole Fellow and a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Alumni. Tresa’s mentor is Joy Priest.

Winita Frederick is a writer and musician from the desert city of Las Vegas, NV, by way of the island nation of Barbados. Winita’s mentor is Rion Amilcar Scott.