Scenes from our Fall Fundraiser, Jack Hazard Fellows and more

Here, Here—& Hear, Hear | Highlights from our Fabulous Fall

We were so pleased to see so many of you last month at our annual celebration Let’s Grow NewLit. We want to extend our sincerest thanks to our many sponsors, presenters, friends, and especially our gracious host, the Saint Mary’s College of California Creative Writing Department (Thanks, Chris Feliciano Arnold). We enjoyed a warm October evening on the bucolic campus with so many of you. We couldn’t do what we do without you. Thank you for your support.

The 2024 Jack Hazard Fellows Application will open on Nov 15. Visit our website for details and application. We are delighted to announce we will open the application for fellowships next Wednesday, but before we do, we wanted to share some reflections below from the amazing cohort of 2023 fellows. Fifteen creative writers teaching high school were awarded $5,000 fellowships this summer in support of an ongoing writing project of their own—and have now returned to their classrooms. They’ve shared thoughtful reflections on the summer months funded by their Jack Hazard Fellowships. To learn more about our Jack Hazard Fellows Program, visit our website.

The nomination process for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize has just closed. We have received hundreds of nominations and will be announcing our long list soon, so keep an eye out.

The Iris Starn Workshop at Concord High School launched last week. Pictured here are Lisa Cattrone with Courtney Pazin, a 2023-2024 Iris Starn Fellow.

Reflections from the 2023 Jack Hazard Fellows

“The Jack Hazard Fellowship has given me the opportunity to wrestle with my own ideas, tease out what’s most important, and make the process feel more wondrous and satisfying. Thanks so much for giving all of the fellows this year so much purpose. In the best of ways, I feel like the work has only just started!”

— Victoria María Castells, Miami Arts Charter School, Miami, FL

“Winning the Jack Hazard Fellowship affirmed several things for me. Foremost, my writing matters and is more than a passionate pursuit, but just as valid as the profession of teaching. Secondly, traveling for research proves my writing doesn't have to be an isolated experience. Beyond books, Google, interviews, and my own lived experiences, I was craving a more intimate connection to the cultural art centering my short story collection: tatreez تطريز. (Palestinian embroidery).”

— Sahar Mustafah, Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Flossmoor, IL

“Even with the chaotic, long hours of prepping for the new school year, I’ve taken to writing in the side room in the evenings, free of distractions, in order to complete the last 20% of revisions. I can’t wait to be “done.” I am so, so grateful for this opportunity! Mahalo piha!”

— Shareen K. Murayama, Henry J. Kaiser High School, Honolulu, HI

New & Noteworthy Releases

Congratulations to 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Winner Lauren Groff on publication of her newest novel, The Vaster Wilds.

Congratulations to Ben Fountain, 2018 Joyce Carol Oates Finalist, on the publication of his powerful new novel, Devil Makes Three.

“I just love Joe Di Prisco’s poems. They move with lightness and grace, arriving again and again at the joy of surprise. They have humor, wisdom, sorrow, joy, love. I would say they have no fucks to give, but they actually give a fuck about everything. To have the best of his work in one book is a real treasure.”

—Matthew Zapruder, Story of a Poem and Father’s Day

To reserve a space for this free event, please register below.

New Literary Project is grateful for generous institutional support from philanthropic and corporate sponsors who, along with our many loyal individual donors, drive social change and make possible serving students, teachers, and writers across generations from neglected and overlooked communities: Simpson PSB Fund, Wood Family Foundation, System Property Development, Bell Investment Advisors, Rare Bird Books, University of California Berkeley, Literary Arts Emergency Fund through the Mellon Foundation, Salesforce Foundation, Lafayette Library and Learning Center, Penguin Random House, Saint Mary’s College of California, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Graywolf Press, and the Miner Anderson Family Foundation.

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