In this fourth year of the Emerge – Surface – Be Fellowship, we were thrilled and honored to have approximately 100 applications. The range and depth of these applications illuminated how exciting this moment is for poetry in New York City, and reaffirmed our commitment to supporting its emerging poets. Choosing three fellows and six finalists was an extremely challenging task for our mentors, but they did it! It’s an honor to announce the 2016-2017 Emerge – Surface – Be Fellows!
Jayson P. Smith will be working with John Godfrey, Sasha Smith will be working with Marcella Durand, and Nicole Shanté White will be working with r. erica doyle. The finalists are Desiree Bailey, Marina Blitshteyn, Marwa Helal, Justine el-Khazen, Christopher Soto, and Chloe Zimmerman.
SASHA SMITH 