PB POETRY FESTIVAL Offers Fellowships And Scholarships For 18th Annual Festival

Susan R. Williamson, Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, today announced that in addition to regular workshop applications, Fellowships and Scholarship applications are now open for the 18th annual Festival, scheduled for January 10-15, 2022.

For the second year in a row, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival will be all-virtual for six days of literary workshops, readings, craft talks, one-on-one conferences, poetry panels, and more.

The Festival is now accepting applications for the following Fellowships and Scholarships. The deadline to apply is November 15, 2021. Fellowships include application fee, tuition, and admission to all festival events. Poets are requested to supply a sample of their work along with a letter of need. Poets may apply online at palmbeachpoetryfestival.submittable.com.

Langston Hughes Fellowship: This fellow will be an outstanding poet who identifies as Black or African American who will benefit from and contribute to participation in the workshop. PBPF is grateful to the administrators of the Langston Hughes Estate for granting permission to name this fellowship.

CantoMundo Fellowship: This fellow will be an outstanding poet who identifies as Latinx who will benefit from and contribute to participation in one of the festival's workshops. PBPF is grateful to CantoMundo, a nonprofit organization that nurtures and supports the numerous aesthetic and philosophical approaches of Latinx poetry in the United States, and builds on the aesthetically, culturally, and linguistically diverse work of Latinx poets, who have historically-and with limited economic resources-formed supportive literary spaces.

Kundiman Fellowship: This fellow will be an outstanding poet who identifies as Asian American who will benefit from and contribute to participation in one of the festival's workshops. PBPF is grateful to Kundiman, dedicated to the creation and cultivation of Asian American literature, offering a comprehensive spectrum of arts programming that gives writers opportunities to inscribe their own stories, transforming and enriching the American literary landscape.

Finally, the Thomas Lux Scholarship will offer one full workshop tuition and admission to all Festival events to a poet who has not previously attended a PBPF workshop. A sample of the poet's work and a letter of need are requested with the application for this scholarship.

"We are grateful to the individuals who united in the spirit of teaching, mentoring, and fostering excellence in poetry to honor the legacy of Thomas Lux's life and work," said Miles Coon, Festival Founder and President. "He always gave support to poets who sought to develop their skill and abilities and recommended to many that they apply to attend our workshops. The Palm Beach Poetry Festival will always remain synonymous with the creative lifeblood of this fine human being and gifted poet."

Note: The Festival does offer a limited number of partial tuition scholarships, subject to available funding, to applicants who might otherwise be unable to attend. PBPF does not accept applications to more than one fellowship or scholarship opportunity in any single year. Duplicate applications may disqualify the applicant.

Applications to participate in the 18th annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival workshops or to apply for one of the Fellowships and Scholarships are available online at: palmbeachpoetryfestival.submittable.com. A full schedule and workshop descriptions are also available on the festival's website.

Special Guest Poet for next January's virtual Festival is Yusef Komunyakaa, a recipient in 1994 of both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. The Poet At Large will be Aimee Nezhukumatathil, a winner of both a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pushcart Prize.

The distinguished Faculty Poets for the upcoming Festival include Kim Addonizio, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, Mark Doty, Yona Harvey, John Murillo, Matthew Olzmann, and Diane Seuss.

The deadline to apply for the 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival is November 15, 2021. Application forms are available online at www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org, where detailed workshop descriptions and faculty biographies can also be found.

Tuition for workshops is $895 and includes 16 hours of virtual workshop instruction and admission to all festival events. Applicants may reserve an optional one-hour, one-on-one conference to be confirmed upon notification of acceptance.

Tuition for Auditors is $495 and includes virtual observation of the workshops and will receive all handouts under discussion.

Applications require a $25 non-refundable application fee plus a $250 tuition deposit. Tuition balances are due upon acceptance to a workshop.

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