Awards

Writing Awards & Fellowships

  • George Bennett Fellowship (fiction), Phillips Exeter Academy, 2021–22
  • Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (fiction), Finalist, 2021
  • Miami Book Fair Emerging Writer Fellowship (fiction), Finalist, 2021
  • AWP Community Scholarship, 2021
  • NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship, Center for Fiction, 2018
  • New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (fiction), 2015
  • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship (fiction), 2014
  • Tidal Basin Review Editorial Prize & Pushcart Prize nomination (fiction), 2010
  • Africana Creative Nonfiction Award, Pan-African Literary Forum, 2008
  • Illinois Arts Council Fellowship (creative nonfiction), 2008
  • Transitions Abroad Narrative Travel Writing Contest, Second Place, 2007
  • Guild Complex Nonfiction Reading Series Award, Finalist, 2006
  • Travelers’ Tales Solas Award for Best Travel Writing, Honorable Mention, 2006
  • Walker Foundation Scholarship (fiction), Fine Arts Work Center, 2006
  • Zora Neale Hurston/Bessie Head Fiction Award, Chicago State University, 2004
  • Douglas Turner Ward/Alice Childress Scriptwriting Award, Chicago State University, 2004
  • Fulbright U.S. Student Fellowship (research), Ghana, West Africa, 2002–03

Fellowship Writing Residencies

  • MacDowell, NH, 2019
  • The Anderson Center, MN, 2019
  • Dickinson House (Henry James Grant), Belgium, 2017
  • Dickinson House (Raveel Grant), Belgium, 2015
  • Hambidge Center (NEA Fellowship), GA, 2014
  • Vermont Studio Center (Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellowship), VT, 2010
  • Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VA, 2008
  • Hedgebrook, WA, 2007

Writing Workshops

  • Kimbilio, novel workshop with David Haynes, ZZ Packer, & Dolen Perkins-Valdez, NM, 2013
  • Pan African Literary Forum, creative nonfiction workshop with Faith Adiele, Ghana, 2008
  • Pan African Literary Forum, fiction workshop with Arthur Flowers, Ghana, 2008
  • Fine Arts Work Center, novel workshop with Elizabeth Strout, MA, 2006
  • VONA, fiction workshop with Cristina Garcia, CA, 2006
  • Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, novel workshop with Agymah Kamau, Washington, DC, 2002