The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil 2027 Emerging Writer Fellowship

The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship program annually provides financial support, professional and creative development, personalized mentorship, and community engagement to nine early-career, New York City-based fiction writers.

During the one-year Fellowship period, Fellows receive:

• A grant of $5,000
• The opportunity to have their manuscript revised and critiqued by an experienced editor
• Access to write in The Center’s Writers Studio
• A monthly Open Studio where creative work is shared and discussed
• The opportunity to meet with editors, authors, and agents who represent new writers at monthly dinners
• Two public readings as part of The Center’s annual program of events
• A professional headshot for personal publicity use
• Inclusion in an anthology distributed to industry professionals
• Invitation and ticket to The Center’s First Novel Fête
• Complimentary admission to all Center events
• A 25% discount on writing workshops at The Center
• A workshop on reading as performance

The Fellowship also marks the beginning of a lifelong relationship with The Center. Alumni remain a vital part of their community, launching their debuts on their stage, participating in programs, and offering support to new Fellows.

The 125 Fellowship alumni have published over 60 books, reflecting The Center’s mission to nurture and champion exciting new voices. Fellows have gone on to receive prestigious honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Whiting Award, the NAACP Image Award, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the Gotham Prize, and the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35.

Acceptance

Applications are read and scored through a tiered process. Each submission is read by at least three participants in The Center’s community Readership. Top-scoring submissions then advance to a panel of accomplished authors, who select the final cohort. Decisions regarding acceptance are based on the merit of the writing sample submitted. Applicants will be notified in December, and Fellowships begin in January and last for one year.

Requirements

Eligibility

Applicants must be current residents of one of the five boroughs and must remain in New York City for the entire year of the fellowship. Students who will be enrolled in degree-granting programs in 2027 are not eligible to apply.

This program supports emerging writers whose work shows promise of excellence. “Emerging” refers to the stage of career rather than age, and The Center welcomes all legal adults (18+) to apply. Specifically, they define an “emerging writer” as someone who has not yet had a novel or short story collection published by a major or independent publisher and who is not currently under contract with a publisher for a work of fiction. Eligible applicants may have had stories or novel excerpts published in magazines, literary journals, or online. If at any point during the judging process an applicant signs a contract for publication or accepts an offer to study in a degree-granting program, they must alert The Center to have the application pulled from consideration. Please email submissions@centerforfiction.org with any questions or concerns.

Required Materials

Please submit a fiction writing sample. The sample must:

• Not exceed 7,500 words
• Be double-spaced
• Be a Word document (.doc or .docx)
• Include page numbers

Note: The writing sample may be a novel excerpt or one complete short story. If you write primarily “flash fiction” or “short shorts” (1,000 words or less), you are permitted to submit multiple stories as long as the total word count does not exceed the previously stated limit. In any case, The Center recommends that you submit a sample that can be considered as a whole.

Please do not include any personal or identifying information on your writing sample. Writing samples containing this information will NOT be considered.

When your submission has successfully uploaded, please email a PDF or jpeg scan showing proof of residency to submissions@centerforfiction.org. A New York driver’s license or non-driver’s ID card is the preferred proof of residency. A PDF of a current utility bill, bank statement, lease/rental agreement, or recent pay stub may also be used to show residency (please omit confidential information such as your Social Security Number). If you are a full-time resident of New York City but do not have any of these items, please email submissions@centerforfiction.org to discuss other proof of residency that may be provided.

Please do NOT include an application cover letter. Instead, please include your mailing address and phone number in the email with your proof of residency. Please do not include any other information unless absolutely necessary, such as questions or comments relating to your eligibility or the submission process.

Application Instructions

The application window will open on July 1, 2026 and close July 31, 2026. Applications must be submitted via the online Submission Manager; there is no application fee.