PRIZES and FELLOWSHIPS

2025/2026

Walton Family and Carolyn F. Walton Cole Fellowship in Fiction

James T. Whitehead Award for Fiction

Lily Peter Fellowship in Fiction

2024/2025

James E. & Ellen Wadley Roper Fellowship in Creative Writing

2023/2024

Carolyn F. Walton First-Year Fellowship

Nominee, the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas Prize for Literature

2021

Arojah Students Playwriting Prize

Praises

“a discourse on the politics of marriage between science and voodoo.” -The NLNG Judges 2023

Walton Family and Carolyn F. Walton Cole Fellowship in Fiction

“… At times lustful, at times harrowing, the story has a deep sense of searching, without apology yet with ferocity, for what might become a meaningful life. Something too close to the heart is happening
on the page.” –Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry (Judge)

James T. Whitehead Award for Fiction

“…The narrative turns were surprising and exciting, and I loved the limits of the character’s self-awareness. I couldn’t stop thinking about this story!” –Katya Apekina (Judge)

“…I was so struck by the balance of tragedy and farce, the unrelenting excess of the voicemail and the dizzying subversion right after, Chuka’s funny and sad and relatable attempts to process the unprocess-able things that have happened to him.”

Emily Zhao, JoyLand Magazine (on VOICEMAIL)

Lily Peter Fellowship in Fiction

“…This is a fully-realized world, which makes the characters and events all the more heart-rending.” –Jon Hickey (Judge)

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