Thanks to a generous grant from the Minnesota Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Aya Collective Publishing is pleased to announce TWO new opportunities to work and publish with us in 2026 – 2027, the Tracing Our Spiritual and Cultural Legacies cohort and Our Inaugural Writer’s Fellowship. Both cohorts are designed for emerging writers in the Twin Cities who are not yet widely published.
- Tracing Our Spiritual and Cultural Legacies will recruit 10 participants. It will focus on developing writing and archival skills while producing a collaboratively authored volume featuring participants’ work. Open to all Black folks.
- Aya Collective Publishing’s Writing Fellowship will recruit 4 participants and focus on publishing new, individually authored texts. Interested writers should have a manuscript that is near completion (approximately 10,000 words) that has not been previously published or developed through A.I. Open to Black women.
Both cohorts consist of 5 months of writing, skill development, editing, publishing, and community celebration in May 2027. Click on the arrows below for more information about the fellowships.
Tracing Our Spiritual and Cultural Legacies Fellowship
As funding from major institutions shrinks—including support for libraries and museums—we see a growing need for Black people to deepen our expertise in transcription, archiving, and preserving our families’ narratives. This project equips community members with the skills to preserve and interpret their own histories. The good news is that many Black people have been collecting and archiving artifacts from their families for years without realizing that this is the work they were doing. We want to come alongside interested participants, support what is already present, and cultivate new, formal skills.
As an organization, we have been preparing for this specific body of work for the last five years. First, we released our text, Incomplete Stories: On Loss, Love, and Hope (2021; 2023), which chronicles a family’s experiences with isolation, depression, and memory loss. Second, we developed a curriculum to support the inquiries that emerge through the archival and (re)membering process. Finally, we deepened our own skills and expertise in the area of memory work.
Fellowship participants will benefit from the work we have been cultivating, gaining an opportunity to deepen their archival skills and produce a short narrative about their family. Each participant will produce a narrative about their family’s legacy between 2,000 and 4,000 words. These narratives will be compiled into a collaborative volume that participants will be able to share with their families, ensuring that their stories are preserved for future generations.
Who: All Black people
Stipend: $200 per participant + editing and publishing manuscript
Facilitators and Speakers include:
- Minkara Tezet,
Chief Griot of Psychology and Psychiatry, Cultural Wellness Center - Ayaan Natala
Graduate Student, University of Minnesota - Regan Richardson
Founder, Regan Edits
- Rekhet Si-Asar
Founder, In Black Ink
Fellowship Dates:
- August 8; 6 – 9 pm (Opening session)
- September 12; October 10; November 14; and December 12; 9 am – noon
- Note: all meetings will be in person and will be held in the Twin Cities.
Other Key Dates:
- Finalizing writing, editing, and publishing: December 2026 – April 2027
- Community report back and celebration, May 2027
ACP’s Writing Fellowship
Over the last eight years, Aya Collective Publishing (ACP) has worked with Black women writers to deepen and support their writing practice. We have hosted dozens of writing spaces, including Sacred Saturdays, which we launched in 2021. In 2022, we published our first anthology, Let the Black Women Say Ase’, followed by a second anthology, Finding the Voice Within, in 2024.
With several anthologies under our belt—and another slated for publication later this year—we are expanding our focus on individually authored texts through our inaugural writers’ fellowship. To date, our individually authored texts include The Gospel According to a Black Woman (2020), Incomplete Stories: On Loss, Love, and Hope (2021, 2023), and Reconsidering Eve: Towards a Deepened Consciousness (2024), all authored by our founder, Ebony Aya. In 2026, we also released Remembered and Living Text: Black Women Living With Endometriosis. This fellowship, designed specifically for Black-identified women, allows us to come alongside more authors as they complete their manuscripts, develop skills within their chosen genre, and ultimately produce their own independently authored work.
Cohort participants will produce a single-authored text of 12,000-15,000 words, to be published in 2027. Eligible texts may include works of fiction, poetry collections, essays, and other literary forms. Ineligible manuscripts include workbooks and journals, manuscripts that have already been published (or are slated for publication), and texts authored or substantially generated by A.I.
Who: Black women and femmes
Stipend: $500 for each participant + editing and publishing manuscript
Facilitators include (list will be updated):
- Ebony Aya
Founder and Creative Director, Aya Collective Publishing - Pamela Fletcher Bush
CEO & Publisher, Saint Paul Almanac and professor emerita of English, St. Catherine University - Debra J Stone,
Author of The House on Rondo (Minnesota Book Award Finalist) - Claudette Webster
Professor, St. Thomas University - Ayo Bamdele
Author of The Return - Joy Marsh
Author of A Good Daughter - Meelah Crawford
Author of Reflect, Renew, Transform
Fellowship dates:
- August 22; September 19; October 24; and November 28; 9 am – noon
- December 12; 1.30 – 4.30 pm (note date and time change)
- Note: All meetings will be in person and will be held in the Twin Cities.
Other key dates:
- Finalizing writing: November 30, 2026
- Editing and Publication: December 2026 – May 2027
You can find the link to both applications here. They are both due July 17 and kick off in August. Note: You may only apply for one fellowship. Questions? Please email me at ebony@ayacollectivemn.com.
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