Spotlight: Winita Frederick
“Once I stopped externalizing my need to have my aspirations validated, I could put all of that energy back into the work.”
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ReadSpotlight: Seelai Karzai
“How can we wrap our heads around loss when it is an ongoing process? How can we find joy in the aftermath of or during survival?” -
ReadSpotlight: Rukan Saif
“I have tried not writing about my women, my identity, etc., but that never works out. Instead I’m leaning into it, generating poems about deshi womanhood.” -
ReadSpotlight: Qing A. Saville
“For me, writing is intense somatic work; art is about restoring, playing, and opening up.” -
ReadSpotlight: Paige Befeler
“The body is one of the best ways to express yourself, existing within the push and pull to exist in its natural state or change to your liking.” -
ReadSpotlight: Nimarta Narang
“That is how the short story feels to me — tightly constructed narrative where details inevitably get shuffled around with some that get left behind.” -
ReadSpotlight: Mickee Cheung
“I can only keep writing and hope that whatever comes out reaches anyone else who needs to hear the same words.” -
ReadSpotlight: Mary Kelly
“A poem to me is like a small cat that curls itself around your legs as you wait for the bus.” -
ReadSpotlight: Lillian Y. Lin
“Writing is a documented journey of self-growth as well as a way to be seen and heard.” -
ReadSpotlight: Kitzia Esteva
“My work is agitational and energized toward transformation and hope—I build worlds deeply rooted in liberation and decolonial imaginings.” -
ReadSpotlight: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
“I bring into the room my family and relatives first and always. They are who have shaped me. My ancestors too.” -
ReadSpotlight: huiyin zhou
“Sometimes the most intimate and powerful work lies in the things that remain private and inaccessible for public gaze.” -
ReadSpotlight: Grace Lee
“Through the safe and tender space of the residency, I found a new approach to my art-making: writing as a gift to my reader.” -
ReadSpotlight: Chii Ọganihu
“I consider myself a multi-genre writer. I will write anything—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, play—if the spirit hits.” -
ReadSpotlight: Bri Stokes
“Lately, I have been writing about power—how it is stolen, how it’s manipulated, and what it means to fear its existence within you.”