APPLICATIONS DUE: September 29, by 11:59 PM ET
FELLOWSHIP STARTS: January 1, 2023

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is now accepting applications for the 2024 Open City Fellowship. The 2024 Open City Fellowship will be open to applicants based in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. If you have specific questions, please email fellowships@aaww.org. 

The Open City Fellowship is a unique opportunity for four  emerging Asian American, Muslim, and Arab writers to publish narrative nonfiction on the vibrant East Asian, South and Southeast Asian, Arab and West Asian, and North and East African communities of the tristate area. 

A total of four Fellows will be selected for next year’s Open City Fellowship; two for the Neighborhoods/ Communities Fellowship and two for the Muslim Communities Fellowship.

We are looking for writers eager to hit the ground running covering Asian immigrant neighborhoods and writing about social justice issues—racial, class, and gender equality. Each Fellow must adopt a specific neighborhood or community and a specific theme (i.e., mental health, COVID-19 issues, LGBTQ+ issues, gentrification, etc.) and write stories along these intertwined geographical/cultural and thematic beats. We’re looking for writers to create deft, engaging narratives that bring the face, name, place, and heart of the community to issues like gentrification, immigration, Islamophobia, community policing, and racial and gender discrimination.

Explore our FAQ here to learn more about the fellowship. 

MATERIALS
SUBMITTABLE APPLICATION FORM: In this form, we will ask you to specify which neighborhood(s) you are uniquely qualified to cover for Open City.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: Identify two to three story ideas tied by a common theme in your chosen neighborhood. The project proposal should be 900 words maximum, and should outline the two stories (one short- form story of up to, 1,000 words, and one long form story of at least 2,500 words) that you will write over the course of your Fellowship.
CV: Upload a 1-3 page resume or CV that also includes publication history.
WRITING SAMPLES: Attach two or three writing samples that best illustrate the kinds of articles you would like to write for Open City. Samples should not be more than three pages each and must be uploaded to the application form as PDFs or MS Word documents. They should be double-spaced, in 12-point font size, and should not include publication information.

REQUIREMENTS
During the fellowship term, fellows must live in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Asian American and Asian diasporic writers are eligible to apply. “Asian American” is defined broadly to include not just, say, Chinese and Indian Americans, but also Asian American adoptee and multiracial writers, Indo-Caribbean writers, and West Asians, such as Iranians and Arab Americans.

Current Fellows may apply for a second round of Fellowship funding if they have completed all the requirements of their current Fellowship. Fellows will need to wait a year after their second Fellowship to apply again. Past Open City Fellows prior to 2022 may apply for the 2024 Open City Fellowships.