The Muses & Melanin Fellowship for California Creative Writers of Color
The Muses & Melanin FellowshipPosted about 16 hours ago
The Muses & Melanin Fellowship is a hybrid, fully funded, seven-month professional development program for talented San Francisco Bay Area BIPOC creative writers who aspire to become professional authors. To be eligible, applicants must not:
• have a lengthy list of publishing credits
• have published a book
• be under a publishing contract
• have literary agent representation
• have a doctoral degree in English, Creative Writing, or Literature (a Master's degree in these subjects is fine, such as an MFA or MA).
A Bachelor's degree is required. Applicants should be able to present a minimum of two publishing credits: articles, short stories, poems, a script, a novel excerpt, an essay, a paper, or a combination of these.
For 2026, we are accepting applications for creative nonfiction, articles, essays, and memoir.
The application deadline is June 12th, 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific time.
About Us
Muses & Melanin ensures that BIPOC creative writers are seen, heard, and nurtured through a program that recognizes, celebrates, and promotes their talent through workshops, seminars, and coworking. We acknowledge that most university Creative Writing programs fail to address the "What next?" postgraduate stage of establishing an author career, leaving many of these community members to flounder or give up writing altogether. We know that the aspiration to become an artist is a tough sell in many minority and immigrant households. M&M's program stands in this gap, committed to leveling the publishing playing field for writers of color through providing tailored guidance, artistic development, and public presentation opportunities that elevate graduates' publication and literary advancement prospects.
