Announcing the 2026 class of Periplus fellows!

Every year, the Periplus collective awards 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 sixth, 40 fellows were selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants. Literary Hub is pleased to announce the 2026 class of Periplus Fellows, listed below:

Alexandra Clemente Perez was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She earned a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco. She writes nonfiction that braids her experiences as an immigrant and tools she learned as a researcher. Her current project is a collection of essays tracing her immigration to the United States. She lives in the Bay Area of Northern California. Alexandra’s mentor is Aurora Almendral.

Amina Washington (she/her) is a Black American and Afro-Caribbean writer from Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature and Psychology. Her work explores the tension between family and freedom, grief, and how folklore shapes families and communities. Though she primarily writes literary fiction, her writing often includes elements of magical realism and science fiction. Amina’s mentor is Dionne Ford.

brandon brown is a writer of strange stories. Their work can be found in Split Lip Magazine, khōréō magazine, and BFS Journal, and they were a 2025 recipient of the PEN/Robert J. Dau prize. They are currently working on a speculative short story cycle about a small town in the grip of climate change and eroded reality. They live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Felix, their loudmouth cat. brandon’s mentor is John Vercher.

Caroline Ji In Choi is a Korean-American writer and multimedia artist from Massachusetts. Her roots begin in media arts, telling stories across mediums and directing films at college, where she was named Media Scholar of the Year at Bentley University’s Film Festival Awards. Caroline specializes in nonhuman voices and writes stories that speak of tension, and is currently at work on a historical fiction novel set in Korea during the mid-1900s. Caroline’s mentor is R. O. Kwon.

Catherine Bai is a Chinese American writer. Her fiction and poetry appear or are forthcoming in AGNI, Best Debut Short Stories 2022, Luna Luna Magazine, and the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. She has received fellowships and support from Vermont Studio Center, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. Catherine’s mentor is Laura van den Berg.

Chidima Anekwe is a Nigerian American writer based in New York, on occupied Lenape land. Her work explores Black feminist theory, hysterical realism, and late-capitalist existential dread. She has received support from GrubStreet Center, the Tucson Festival of Books, and the Dar Meso Residency. She was awarded the 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction, and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Chidima’s mentor is Laura Warrell.

Eleanore Catolico is a Filipino American journalist, writer and editor based in Michigan. She has earned fellowships from the USC Center for Health Journalism, Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, City Bureau and Solutions Journalism Network. She was a Pulitzer Center grantee and an associate producer for the forthcoming healthcare documentary “No Discount.” Eleanore has written for YES! Magazine, Civil Eats, EdSurge, Eater, Next City, Chicago Reader, Detroit Metro Times, Detroit Free Press, BridgeDetroit, and Chalkbeat. Eleanore’s mentor is J Wortham.

Elisabetta La Cava is a double immigrant, born in Italy and raised in Venezuela, living in Austin, Texas. She’s a Spring 2026 Ucross Fellow, and was a 2025 Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her nonfiction won the 2024 New Letters Literary Awards, and her poetry received 2nd Place in the 2022 Hispanic Culture Review Poetry Competition. Her work has also appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Another Chicago Magazine, Stone Canoe, The Pointed Circle, Texas Poetry Calendar, and other journals. Elisabetta’s mentor is Wendy C. Ortiz.

Emma Deshpande writes fiction about biracial Indian-Irish and queer experiences and questions she wishes she had asked her grandparents. Her novel SPIRAL was a finalist in the 2022 Simon and Schuster BOOKS LIKE US First Novel Contest, and she was longlisted for the Granum Foundation Prize in 2022 and 2024. She has received support from Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and elsewhere. She is represented by Maria Whelan at Mushens Entertainment. Emma’s mentor is Shruti Swamy.

Fran Qi is a lost engineer and a renewed writer based out of San Francisco. She writes some fiction, but mostly poems, published or forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Cincinnati Review, Baltimore Review, Sky Island Journal, Orange Blossom Review, Dawn Review, and elsewhere. Fran’s mentor is Felicia Zamora.

Isra Hassan is Somali-American poet from Minneapolis, MN. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, was a finalist for the 2023 Center for African American Poetry & Poetics Book Prize, and can be found in DMQ Review, Poetry Wales, Poet Lore, Logic(s) Magazine, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. Isra’s mentor is Frederick Joseph.

Ivy Scott is an Afro-Caribbean poet and writer who heavily claims New York, and currently lives in St. Louis. Her work meditates often on faith, diaspora, and ancestry — in particular, the well-documented legacy of influential women that can be traced back several generations on her mother’s side. She also seeks to explore connections between urban spaces and ideas of “the tropic” — both as home/anchor, and as exotic (that is, pleasantly strange) destination. Ivy’s mentor is Vincente Perez.

Jia-Rui Cook is a Chinese-American writer, editor, and producer who lives in Los Angeles. Once a staff writer at the L.A. Times, she is currently a senior communications officer at the California Wellness Foundation. Jia-Rui won the Zócalo Public Square poetry prize in 2013 and her poetry has recently appeared in Puerto del Sol, SWWIM Every Day, and Only Poems. She is working on her first full-length manuscript. Jia-Rui’s mentor is Jenny Sadre-Orafai.

Jonathan Ayala (he/him/él) is a Chicano writer from El Paso, Texas and a graduate of UTEP’s MFA program in Creative Writing. He has also studied at the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Macondo Summer Writers’ Workshop. His stories have been published in journals such as Foglifter, Rio Grande Review, StoryQuarterly, among others, and he also writes “Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism,” a newsletter about art and culture responding to the HIV epidemic. Jonathan’s mentor is Jason Parham.

Karo Ska is a Bengali-Polish gender-fluid writer living on unceded Tongva land. Their writing focuses on identity and the intersections of mental health and oppressive systems. Anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian, they find joy where they can. Their work has been supported by Tin House Summer Workshop, Anaphora Arts, California Arts Council, Community Literature Initiative and DSTL Arts. Author of loving my salt-drenched bones (World Stage Press, 2022), they are currently working on a memoir and a novel. Karo’s mentor is Nadia Owusu.

Kiera McCabe (隆春燕) is a queer transracial transnational adoptee raised in Idaho. The anxiety of being “other” at home—whether those lost or made—surfaces throughout her poetry. Her study of diasporic poetry in translation, career in privacy engineering, and journey across the US leave her uniquely situated to address the intersections and evolution of identity, whether through lineage, made families, or an ever-modernizing hometown and homeland. She was longlisted for Frontier Poetry’s 2023 Hurt and Healing Prize and a finalist for the 2024 Starling fellowship. In NYC she is a regular workshop participant with MoMA and Playwrights Horizons. Kiera’s mentor is Mary-Kim Arnold.

Kriska Desir is a Haitian-American writer based in Los Angeles. Her nonfiction has been published in Vulture, Nylon, SPIN, and elsewhere. Her fiction has been published in Epiphany. Kriska’s mentor is Rion Amilcar Scott.

Lauren Yu-Ting Bo is a mixed-Taiwanese writer and critic, primarily exploring multiracial identity, Taiwanese culture and politics, and the impacts of migration and translation. She is a 2025-26 NBCC Emerging Critics Fellow and has written for Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, Asymptote, Ploughshares Blog, The Brooklyn Review, and elsewhere. She currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, where she is working on a novel. Lauren’s mentor is Rachel Khong.

Lex Garcia (she/her) is a first-generation college graduate and community college alumna who teaches composition and creative writing at the community college level and is an author interviewer for Sunny’s Journal and Press. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles and has further honed her craft at VONA, Tin House, StoryStudio, and The Community of Writers, where she was a recipient of The Ancinas Scholarship. Lex is currently working on a coming-of-age novel and resides in Southern California with her partner and their two Boston terriers. Lex’s mentor is Adib Khorram.

Lindsay Quintanilla is a Central American writer from Las Vegas, Nevada. Lindsay is currently working on her first novel. She’s been invited to participate in The Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook Writing Residency, and her work has appeared in PALABRITAS, KHÔRA, Acentos Review. She holds an MFA from The University of San Francisco. She is currently living in Houston, Texas. Lindsay’s mentor is Libby Flores.

Lisa Chen is a Taiwanese American writer based in Seattle. She is a 2025 Tin House Summer Scholar and has received residencies and fellowships by Mesa Refuge, Anaphora Arts, and the Whitely Center. Deeply rooted in working class storytelling, she writes about generational grief and daughterhood. Her essays have appeared in The Seventh Wave, Moss, and more. Lisa’s mentor is Angelique Stevens.

Liz Iversen’s fiction and essays explore migration, motherhood, and the history of the Philippines, where she was born. An Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writer Fellow, Tin House Scholar, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, she lives in Maine and is at work on two novels. Liz’s mentor is Grace Talusan.

May Teng is an Indonesian-American writer and essayist based in Brooklyn. May’s fixations include fragmented narratives, portraits of place, boundaries and borders, and collective memory. Her writing has received support and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Civil Society Institute, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. May also attended the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction MFA program, where she taught creative writing and learned to use the word “lacuna” in a sentence. May’s mentor is E. Alex Jung.

Meredith Seung Mee Buse is a Korean American transracial adoptee. Her essay “Variations on a Theme” will be included in an edited anthology on transnational adoptee origins in 2026, and her debut picture book, Emily Min-Ji Makes Kimchi, is forthcoming in 2027. Her work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Komerican Pie, Severance Magazine, Diverse Bookfinder, and Adoptee Reclaimed. She won Highlights Foundation scholarships in 2023 and 2025. Meredith’s mentor is Nicole Chung.

Michaeljulius Y. Idani is an Atlanta-based writer of fictions and coordinator of the Black-ish Book Club. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa, where he earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has been supported by organizations such as the Georgia Writers Association, Kimbilio, the Hambidge Center, and the de Groot Foundation. Michaeljulius’s mentor is Joseph Earl Thomas.

Mohammad Hakima is an author and educator. He moved to the United States from Tehran, Iran, and started writing after learning to speak English. His work is published and forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Warrior Review, Boulevard, Passages North, etc. He is the winner of Boulevard magazine’s 2024 Nonfiction Contest. He is a Jack Hazard Fellow, and he’s also received a fellowship from Hawthornden Brooklyn, where he teaches a fiction workshop. His writing has received support from Vermont Studio Center, the Kenyon Writers Workshop, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. He has an MFA in fiction from The New School, and he’s a high school special education teacher in NYC. Mohammad’s mentor is Youssef Rakha.

Monique Hayes is a fiction author, poet, and screenwriter. A Callaloo and Hurston/Wright Fellow and Pushcart Prize nominee, she received her MFA from the University of Maryland College Park. She’s the recipient of an American Antiquarian Fellowship, an Eccles Visiting Fellowship (British Library), and an inaugural winner of the Courage to Write Grant (the deGroot Foundation). Recent publications include works in the Killens Review of Arts and Letters, Lucky Jefferson, Grit and Gravity, Revise the Psalm, among others. Monique’s mentor is Jamila Minnicks.

Noel Quiñones is an Emmy award-winning Nuyorican writer from the Bronx. Their work has been published in Poetry, Boston Review, Poem-a-day, and the Michigan Quarterly Review, for which they won the 2025 Jesmyn Ward Fiction Prize. Their short story “This Time and the Next” will be included in The Best Short Stories 2026: The O. Henry Prize Winners. They have also received fellowships from CantoMundo, Lambda Literary, the Watering Hole, and the Vermont Studio Center. A graduate of the University of Mississippi’s MFA program, Noel’s debut poetry collection, Orange, is forthcoming in May 2026 from CavanKerry Press. Noel’s mentor is Xochitl Gonzalez.

Norman Tran (he/they) is a poet, educator, and designer—a queer, neurodivergent Chinese American from Los Angeles and child of Vietnam War refugees. Their work appears in Tell Me About the Dream, Seventh Wave, Multiplicity Magazine, and Gather. Norman is a finalist for Hayden’s Ferry Review’s Poetry Contest, a Best of the Net nominee, and occasionally facilitates interpersonal dynamics at Stanford GSB. Find them wherever there’s Vietnamese iced coffee and irresponsible chord progressions. Norman’s mentor is Sejal Shah.

Olivia Adekola is a Nigerian-American passionate about stories that center the experience of the African woman both on the continent and in the diaspora. A graduate of the 2024 #WeNeedDiverseBooks Black Creatives Revision Workshop, she has short stories published in Porter House Review,  Isele Magazine’s 2024 anthology on grief, and Afritondo’s 2025 anthology This Is How To Stay Alive. Olivia’s mentor is Jennifer Baker.

Pamela Bobowicz is a transracial adoptee from India who grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in New York. She’s a book editor and writer with a focus on children’s literature, education, and entertainment. She is currently at work on a memoir about her adoption, race, and belonging. Pamela’s mentor is Renee Simms.

Sammi Chiyao is a PhD candidate at Stanford University, originally from Boston. Her work has appeared in Peatsmoke and received the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize. She has been supported by Tin House, Kundiman, the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference, and Seventh Wave. Sammi’s mentor is Mimi Lok.

Serena Simpson is a writer from Chicago, IL. She has published essays in Barrelhouse and Ninth Letter. Her work frequently explores memory, place, and their overlap, interstices, and interplay. Serena won the Guild Complex’s 2018 Leon Forest Prose Award for nonfiction, was named a 2019 Tin House Scholar, awarded the 2020 Disquiet Prize for nonfiction, and selected as a 2021 Sewanee Nonfiction Scholar. Serena’s mentor is Deesha Philyaw.

Sherry Yuan spent her first five years in Suzhou, China and the next 18 in Vancouver, Canada. She currently lives in San Francisco where she writes, draws, and codes. In her written and visual creative work, she combines the surreal and speculative with her experiences of immigration, background in tech and psychology, and Chinese mythology. Sherry has short stories published in markets including Infinite Worlds Magazine and Luna Station Quarterly. Sherry’s mentor is Megan Kamalei Kakimoto.

Sidney Logan Echevarria is Epiphany Magazine’s 2025 Fresh Voices Fellow and received the PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in 2024. Sidney has published short stories in Bodega Magazine and Minerva Rising’s The Keeping Room. She has participated in Yale Writers’ Workshop, Tin House’s Winter Workshop, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro. She is currently working on her first novel. Sidney’s mentor is DK Nnuro.

Sui Wang writes poetry and short fiction. She is a social science PhD student living between Los Angeles and New York. Her work appears in HAD, Occlum, Contemporary Verse 2, The Inflectionist Review, and elsewhere. She was a 2025 Brooklyn Poets Summer Fellow, a finalist for the Yellowwood Poetry Prize and the 7th Sine Theta Writing Contest, and longlisted for London Magazine Short Story Contest. Sui’s mentor is Annell Lopez.

Tracy Jones is a poet, writer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores existential dimensions of technology, spirituality, ancestry, and the environment. Her creative practice spans various poetic forms, including the written word through the lens of docupoetics and romantic surrealism, cinema poems, and 3D erasure poetry. Her writing has been curated for U.N. World Oceans Day and is published in juried anthologies and reviews. Tracy’s mentor is Adrienne Raphel.

Verdell Walker is a writer of speculative fiction from rural Georgia whose work is inspired by her heritage and her research. Her stories are published and forthcoming in Tractor Beam and Reckoning, and her nonfiction writing has appeared in Bustle, Vox, Forge, and ZORA. Verdell’s mentor is LaToya Watkins.

Ye Ning is the winner of the Tobias Wolff Fiction Prize from Bellingham Review, a finalist for the Hong Kong Youth Literature Prize, and a longlist for Black Warrior Review’s Online Flash Contest. Their short stories have appeared in Bellingham Review and Sine Theta. They have received a scholarship to attend the NYS Summer Writers Institute. Ning’s mentor is M Lin.

Zuhra Malik is an Afghan American writer. She won the 2024 Banyan Review Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, KAIROS, The Los Angeles Review, and Qafiya Review. She lives in Virginia. Zuhra’s mentor is Abeer Hoque.