Join us for SpeakOut NewLit on Nov 9
ใฐ๏ธ
Join us for SpeakOut NewLit on Nov 9 ใฐ๏ธ
People bravely write their hearts out every day in New Literary Project, across generations, & communities, & boundaries.
We drive social change by unleashing artistic power. Learn how. Watch Jack Hazards of LA: The Documentary
โThis is precisely the time when artists go to workโฆ. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledgeโeven wisdom. Like art.โ
โ TONI MORRISON
New Literary Project came together in 2015 in partnership between the University of California, Berkeley, English Department, the worldโs foremost English Department, in the worldโs leading public university, and altruistic community leaders in the Bay Area.
Submissions Now Open for 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize
OAKLAND, CAโ New Literary Project announces that submissions are now open for the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. The annual $50,000 Prize celebrates mid-career authors of fiction who are emerged and continually emerging writers of major consequenceโshort stories and/or novelsโat the relative midpoint of a burgeoning career, beyond recognition of a single literary work.
In order to be considered for the Prize, authorsโ most recently published full-length work of fiction will be submitted via Submittable (explained below).
About the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
The Joyce Carol Oates Prize is named in honor of the preeminent author, and our colleague. In the past, Joyce served as Simpson Project Writer-in-Residence, and today she sits on the New Literary Project Board of Directors as an honorary member. NewLit gratefully acknowledges her inspiring, lifelong impact as peerless teacher and writer, an author beloved and admired by legions of students, writers, and readers around the country and the world. She embodies the Projectโs most deeply held commitments to literature and literacy, arts and education, in order to enhance the lives of students, readers, and writers across generations and diverse communities. Learn More
2025 Winners of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
Jennine Capรณ Crucet, of North Carolina, and Willy Vlautin, of Oregon, have been named the ninth and tenth Recipients of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prizes (JCO) awarded by New Literary Project (NewLit).
Each receives $50,000 on the occasion of NewLitโs tenth anniversary in 2025.
Read more about Jennine Capรณ Crucet.
Read more about Willy Vlautin.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW with the winners and Joyce Carol Oates and NewLitโs Joe Di Prisco.
2025 National Jack Hazard Fellows Named: $5,000 Summer Awards to Creative Writers Teaching High School
NewLit awards $5,000 Jack Hazard Fellowships to exceptionally promising and accomplished writers who are full-time high school educators. The Jack Hazard is intended to support these authors and enable them to spend summer working on their own literary projectsโfiction, memoir, creative nonfiction.
We considered hundreds of applicants from more than 35 states, and there were many worthy, excellent candidates we wish we could have supported. We thank them for applying, hope they will apply again, and wish them success in their writing careers.
Since 2022, NewLit has awarded 38 Jack Hazard Fellowships to writers from 15 states around the country.
This Summer, we are pleased to award five 2025 Jack Hazard Fellowships.
For more information about the fellowship, visit our Jack Hazard Fellowship Program page.
Meet our 2025 Bonnie Bonetti-Bell and Iris Starn Teaching Fellows
The New Literary Project is offering five Bonnie Bonetti-Bell Fellowships and Workshops and four Iris Starn Fellowships and Workshops in 2025. Our 2025 Teaching Fellows will conduct creative writing workshops offered to young people throughout the Bay Area through partner organizations such as Girls, Inc. of Alameda County, East Bay School of Performing Arts, Mt. McKinley, Northgate, Albany, and other high schools.
For more information about the teaching fellowships and to meet our 2025 Teaching Fellows, visit our program pages below.
About Bonnie Bonetti-Bell
Bonnie Bonetti-Bell (1945 โ 2019) wrote and read her heart out as soon as she could read and hold a pencil. For most of her life, she read at least one book per week, and she was a compelling storyteller both as a writer and public speaker. Learn More
Scenes from VOTE NEWLIT 2024 and our October Residency Events
New Literary Project was delighted to host 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize WInner Ben Fountain, author of Devil Makes Three and Billy Lynnโs Long Half-Time Walk among other works, in October for a Bay Area residency.
We also released our new Jack Hazard Fellows short documentary and Simpsonistas, vol. 6.
SEE PHOTOS on our Events Page.
WATCH VIDEOS on our Highlights Page.
Our Story
New Literary Project invests in students & teachers, readers & authors, and it inspires and equips writers across the generations to write their hearts out. NewLit offers writing workshops free of charge for underserved younger writers; celebrates storytellers and storytelling through a major national award to a mid-career author of fiction (the Joyce Carol Oates Prize); and makes possible readings, events, and publication in our annual anthology of Project-connected authors, Simpsonistas.
Writing Workshops
New Literary Project leads creative writing workshops at high schools and afterschool programs throughout the Bay Area. The majority of the teenagers in our workshops will be the first in their families to attend college.
Jack Hazard Fellowships
Jack Hazard Fellows are fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and memoir writers who teach full time in an accredited United States high school. We provide a $5,000 award that enables these creative writers who teach to focus on their writing for a summer.
Simpsonistas
Simpsonistas highlights fiction, poetry, essays, and conversation by many brilliant associates of New Literary Project. Authors include teenagers published for the first time alongside distinguished award-winning authors.
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