Opportunities
Acceptance into the Cave Canem Fellowship offers additional benefits and resources:
- Access to the Fellows & Faculty Fund
- Access to exclusive scholarships for select writing residences
- Archival training
- Inclusion in Cave Canem public programming (readings, panels, multigenre collaborations, etc.)
- Subscription to Digest, a bimonthly Cave Canem resource containing community news and exclusive offers
- One-year subscription to Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora for all new Fellows
Cave Canem collaborates with several institutions to offer residencies, fellowships, and other opportunities specifically for Cave Canem Fellows. To learn more about becoming a Cave Canem Fellow, visit our Retreat page.
Fellows & Faculty FundPage 1
About
Cave Canem established the Fellows & Faculty Fund in 2020, originally to help support members of our community during a time of global hardship. As Cave Canem continues its mission to foster community across the diaspora, these grants will serve as a resource for Fellows to nurture their poetic pursuits and help them create and implement programs that make access to Black poetry more equitable.
The Fellows & Faculty Fund (FFF) provides financial support to Cave Canem Fellows and Faculty to nurture their poetic pursuits, as well as help them ideate, develop, and implement programs that increase access to Black poetry. The fund offers two distinct grant opportunities:
Individual Grants
These grants provide $500 to use at the discretion of the recipient. Past grantees have used this support to cover urgent or unexpected expenses, or to supplement elements of their artistic practice and development. Grantees are eligible to apply for funding again the following year, though preference is given to first-time applicants.
Application
Individual Grants are available on a rolling basis to Fellows and Faculty.
Opportunities for FellowsPag. 2
Cave Canem collaborates with several institutions to offer residencies, fellowships, and other opportunities specifically for Cave Canem Fellows.
Community
of Writers
Community of Writers
The Poetry Program at the Community of Writers is founded on the belief that when poets gather in a community to write poems, each poet may well break through old habits and write something stronger and truer than they have before. Program participants work to create an atmosphere in which everyone feels free to try anything. The community is located in Olympic Valley close to the north shore of Lake Tahoe, where program participants can join workshops, readings, nature walks, and more.
The Community of Writers allocates three scholarships per year to Cave Canem Fellows to attend the Community of Writers Poetry Program each year.
Application
Applications for the Community of Writers 2024 Poetry Program are now closed. To stay informed about next year’s program, we encourage you to join the Community of Writers’ mailing list.
Fine Arts Work Center
Fine Arts Work Center
The Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) is internationally known for its acclaimed Fellowship program, granting seven-month residencies to 20 emerging writers and artists. FAWC Fellowships have provided sustained and crucial time and space to over 1,000 emerging artists over the course of its 50+ year history.
In addition to winter Fellowships, the Fine Arts Work Center offers an open-enrollment Summer Workshop Program with over 60 week-long workshops in visual arts and creative writing for more than 500 students over the course of 9 weeks every summer. We bring nationally recognized artists and writers to Provincetown to teach our workshops and to participate in readings and artist talks that are enjoyed by hundreds in the community.
FAWC provides four scholarships for Cave Canem Fellows to attend one of their week-long summer workshops. These scholarships cover the cost of housing and tuition, in addition to providing a $500 travel/food stipend.
Application
For more information on FAWC and their summer workshops, please visit https://fawc.org/summer-workshops/. Applications for the scholarships will open in mid-January 2026. If you choose to apply, please be sure to include in your application that you are a Cave Canem Fellow.
Sewanee Writers’ Conference
Sewanee Writers’
Conference
The Sewanee Writers’ Conference is located at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and offers workshops in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and nonfiction. The program also includes an individual meeting with a faculty member, readings, craft lectures, and master classes.
The Conference is offering an annual poetry fellowship to one Cave Canem Fellow. Fellows are waived the $2,000 cost to attend, which includes room and board, and are only responsible for their travel costs. Each Fellow is asked to be an active member in the workshop, give a 15-minute reading at Sewanee, and meet individually with six writers from their workshop for half hour manuscript consultations. Fellows also have an opportunity to teach a one-hour special topics class at Sewanee, for which they are paid $500.
Application
Applications for the 2024 Sewanee Writers’ Conference are now closed. To stay informed about next year’s program, we encourage you to join check back with the Conference application page.
