Tribal communities have long fostered emerging literary talents and continue to produce some of the most influential voices in the literary landscape today. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is honored to provide more space for such talent through the AWP Tribal Colleges and Universities Fellowship Program. Funded in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this program seeks to uplift Indigenous American writers within the AWP community and throughout tribal colleges and universities (TCUs).

To invite the participation of Indigenous American creative writers, AWP awards faculty and student fellowships to attend and participate in every annual AWP conference and bookfair. Current fellowships will send fellows to the 2025 AWP conference and bookfair in Los Angeles, California. TCU faculty awarded a fellowship will receive a $4,000 honorarium while students receive a $250 stipend. All fellows will receive paid travel expenses and lodging for the AWP conference. The AWP’s publication, The Writer’s Chronicle, will publish a story about each fellow and their experiences.

Two TCU faculty received the fellowship this year, including Michelle Sturges- Brown (Northern Paiute-Blackfeet) who teaches composition and literature at Haskell Indian Nations University, and Dr. Shaina A. Nez (Diné), a creative writing and English lecturer at Diné College’s Shiprock campus. Students who received the fellowship include Aziza Smith (Eastern Shoshone), a business student at Haskell, and Shannel Garcia (Diné), who is pursuing a BFA in creative writing at Diné College.