BROOKLYN, New York (January 2, 2023) — Cave Canem and EcoTheo Collective are pleased to announce that submissions are open for the 2023 Starshine and Clay Fellowship, which provides creative and financial support to Black poets without a full-length book published or under contract.

Two recipients will each receive $500 for a featured reading at the 2023 Wonder Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. Fellowship recipients will also receive a one-on-one consultation with Roger Reeves. Additionally, the fellows’ work will be published in the summer 2023 issue of EcoTheo Review.

Named in honor of Cave Canem elder Lucille Clifton (“won’t you celebrate with me”), the Starshine and Clay Fellowship was developed to speak to the mentorship Clifton offered Cave Canem Fellows during her tenure as faculty at the Retreat.

This year’s judge is Cave Canem Fellow Roger Reeves.

The deadline for submissions is February 2, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Free to apply.

Submit manuscripts online via Submittable. Hard-copy submissions will not be considered. One manuscript per poet is allowed.

About the Judge:

Roger Reeves is the author of King Me, Best Barbarian, and the forthcoming Dark Days: Fugitive Essays, his first book of nonfiction. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University, and a Whiting Award. Best Barbarian was a finalist in poetry for the National Book Award. His poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, The New York Times, Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Previous judges were: Airea D. Matthews; Gregory Pardlo

About EcoTheo Collective:

EcoTheo Collective envisions a world in which care for the places we inhabit, the people we encounter, and the lives we lead makes for lasting beauty in art, nature, and community. In the work we publish online and quarterly print editions of EcoTheo Review, we cultivate conversation and connection with artists and writers to bring original work to a wide audience invested in the relationships between ecology and theology, earth justice, and social justice. ETR was founded in 2013 at Princeton Theological Seminary as a literary journal dedicated to “enlivening conversations and commitments around ecology, spirituality, and art.” We celebrate and share original writing, visual art, interviews, book reviews, and scholarly articles that explore questions of religion and spirituality within contexts of ecology. The Starshine and Clay Fellowship, a partnership with Cave Canem, honors the legacy of Lucille Clifton and supports emerging Black poets with paid publishing and performing opportunities, along with mentorship from Cave Canem poets. All our work expresses our values of curiosity, justice, and community. 

This program is supported, in part, by Amazon Literary Partnership Poetry Fund in partnership with the Academy of American Poets; Ford Foundation; Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; Heinz Endowments; Lannan Foundation; New York State Council of the Arts; Poetry Foundation; and The Rona Jaffe Foundation.