Apply to be a BookEnds Fellow!
Co-directed by Meg Wolitzer and Alison Fairbrother, BookEnds is an innovative, yearlong and low-residency novel revision program, giving writers the tools, support, and community to take their work from promising draft all the way to completion.
As a BookEnds fellow, you’ll spend a year writing, revising, and editing your manuscript alongside a small cohort of talented fiction writers with promising novel drafts. You’ll dive deep into your characters’ worlds using the unique BookEnds methodology and interrogatory techniques, with distinguished mentors such as Karen E. Bender, Lincoln Michel, Mateo Askaripour and Stephanie Wambugu to guide you along the way.
2026-2027 will be our tenth fellowship year! In 2026, these BookEnds novels are forthcoming: Miranda Shulman's Harmless (Dutton) Rachel León's How We See The Gray (Curbstone) Marian MItchell Donahue's Backstitch (Galiot) Jennifer Yeh's Migratory Creatures (William Morrow) Kelly Anderson's The Wild Beneath (Park Row) Program publishing highlights: In 2020, Caitlin Mullen's Please See Us was selected as one of the New York Times’ top ten crime novels for the year and winner of the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Award for
Best First Novel. In 2022, Alison Fairbrother's The Catch (Random House) was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, while Sue Mell's contest-winning Provenance (Madville) and Coco Picard's contest-winning The Healing Circle (Red Hen) were published to broad acclaim. In 2023, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year (Holt) was the subject of the New York Times Group Text as well as a New York Times Editors' Choice, while Vanessa Cuti’s The Tip Line (Crooked Lane) was a New York Public Library Summer 2023 Staff Pick. In 2024 Nora
Decter's What's Not Mine (ECW Press) and Joselyn Takacs’ Pearce Oysters (Zibby Owens, 2024) were both published to excellent reviews. In summer 2025, Giano
Cromley's American Mythology (Doubleday) was released to wide praise. We are thrilled for these authors, and proud of all of our BookEnds alums for their
dedication to writing craft and commitment to writing community. We look forward to
sharing more such news in the near future!
● We accept manuscripts for novels or linked short story collections. ● We look for a small number of talented fiction writers with promising novel drafts.
BookEnds requires a sustained commitment to a manuscript in progress, and the ability
to generate constructive criticism for and with a small group of peers. ● To apply, we require the following documents: novel manuscript, a statement of purpose (300
words maximum), a summary of the novel (300 words maximum), and a resume. ● Applications for the 2027-2028 Fellowship Elven open November 15, 2026, and close January
1, 2027. We accept applications on a rolling basis until we hit fifty applications, or reach the deadline of January 1, whichever comes first. Interviews
take place in February. Once admitted fellows are notified, they will have seven days
to accept the offer. ● If your manuscript is selected, cost for the program is $10,400. We have a limited
number of need-based, partial scholarships to offset the cost of the program. ● The application software is generated through Submittable, and therefore requires
a Submittable account.
Application Requirements:
Successful applicants must demonstrate a sustained commitment to their manuscripts,
as well as the ability to work well in groups (what we call “pods”), to give and receive
constructive feedback. There are four mandatory virtual meetings in May-June 2027
before we meet in July 2027 at the Southampton Writers Conference. Throughout the
year, fellows meet with their pods and mentors, as well as stay in close communication
with the Fellowship on Slack. In January 2028, we meet for a virtual retreat. In July
2028, the cohort returns to the Southampton Writers Conference for graduation and
alumni retreat.
Applications for the 2027-2028 Fellowship Eleven will open November 15, 2026, and close January 1, 2027. We will accept applications on a rolling basis until we hit 50 applications, or reach the deadline on January 1, whichever comes first. For updates and with any questions, write to us at BookEnds@stonybrook.edu.
Apply to be a BookEnds Fellow!
Meet Our Team
A faculty member of the Department of Creative Writing, Meg Wolitzer is program co-director of BookEnds. Her novels include The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife, among others. Wolitzer, who has also written books for young readers, was guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017. She is host of the literary radio show and podcast Selected Shorts.
A lecturer in the Department of Creative Writing at The Lichtenstein Center and co-director of BookEnds, Alison Fairbrother is the author of the novel The Catch, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a People magazine “Best New Book.” She was an associate editor at Riverhead Books before coming to Stony Brook, where she worked with New York Times bestselling and award winning authors. A graduate of Stony Brook’s MFA program, she was a BookEnds fellow during the program’s inaugural year.
A lecturer in the Department of Creative Writing, Film & Television, JP Solheim is Associate Director of BookEnds. They were a BookEnds Fellow in 2020. They have taught at Stony Brook University, University of Michigan, Université de Paris VII, and University of Illinois—Chicago, in addition to creative writing workshops at the Northwestern Summer Writers’ Conference and StoryStudio Chicago, where they organize the Chicago Queer Writers cohort.
Karen E. Bender is the author of three story collections: Refund, a Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, a shortlist selection for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, a Longlist selection for the Story Prize, and a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and The New Order, a Longlist selection for the Story prize. A new collection, The Words of Dr. L, was published in May 2025. She is also the author of two novels: Like Normal People, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and A Town of Empty Rooms. Her fiction has appeared in magazines including The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, The Harvard Review, Guernica and others, and has been reprinted in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and won three Pushcart prizes. She has won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rona Jaffe foundation.Karen has taught creative writing at universities including Hollins University, the University of Iowa, Warren Wilson College, Chatham University, and Tunghai University, and currently teaches for the MFA program at SUNY Stony Brook and the low residency MFA program at Alma College. You can find her at http://www.karenebender.com.
Andrew E. Colarusso is author of several books of prose and poetry. Most recently, Black Body Index (2024 Book Works UK), a hybrid essay collection, and Pettyg-d, his second full collection of poetry (2026, Flood Editions). He is also the owner of Taylor & Co. Books, an indie bookstore in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
A lecturer in the Department of Creative Writing at The Lichtenstein Center and co-director of BookEnds, Alison Fairbrother is the author of the novel The Catch, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a People magazine “Best New Book.” She was an associate editor at Riverhead Books before coming to Stony Brook, where she worked with New York Times bestselling and award winning authors. A graduate of Stony Brook’s MFA program, she was a BookEnds fellow during the program’s inaugural year.
Daisy Alpert Florin is the author of My Last Innocent Year (Holt, 2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, an Amazon Editors’ Pick, a Washington Post Staff Pick and an Indie Next pick. Daisy attended Dartmouth College and received graduate degrees from Columbia University and Bank Street Graduate School of Education. She was a recipient of the 2016 Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College and was a 2019–20 fellow in the BookEnds novel revision fellowship where she worked with founding director Susan Scarf Merrell. A native New Yorker, she lives in Connecticut with her family.
Stephanie Gangi is an award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer and essayist living and writing in New York City. Her debut novel The Next was published by St. Martin’s Press, and Carry the Dog was published by Algonquin Books. Gangi’s work has appeared in Catapult, LitHub, Hippocrates Poetry Anthology, McSweeney’s, New Ohio Review, Oldster, Next Tribe, The Woolfer, Arts & Letters, Craft and more. Her third novel The Good Provider is in progress.
Molly Gaudry
Molly Gaudry is the author of the verse novel We Take Me Apart, which was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award and shortlisted for the PEN/Osterweil. Desire: A Haunting, its sequel, and Fit Into Me: A Novel: A Memoir, are further explorations of the same storyworld and characters. Molly holds master’s degrees in fiction and poetry from the University of Cincinnati and George Mason University, respectively, and a PhD in experimental prose from the University of Utah. An assistant professor at Stony Brook University, she teaches nonfiction and poetry in the BFA and MFA programs. Summers, she teaches fiction at the Yale Writers’ Workshop.
Matthew Klam is the author of the novel, Who Is Rich?, a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book, nominated for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and Sam the Cat, winner of the PEN/Robert Bingham Prize for a Debut Short Story Collection, and a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book of the Year, First Fiction. He's a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts. His writing has been featured in such places as The New Yorker, Harper's, GQ, The New York Times, Esquire, The O' Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction. He's currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Stony Brook University.
Susan Scarf Merrell co-founded the BookEnds Fellowship with Meg Wolitzer in 2016. She was an Associate Professor on faculty with the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature for many years, and is most recently the author of Shirley: A Novel, which became a major motion picture starring Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Lincoln Michel is the author of the story collection Upright Beasts (Coffee House Press, 2015), and the novels The Body Scout (Orbit, 2021) and Metallic Realms (Atria, 2025). His fiction appears in The Paris Review, Granta, F&SF, NOON, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. His essays and criticism have been published by The New York Times, GQ, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. He is the former editor-in-chief of the website Electric Literature and is the co-editor of the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthologies Tiny Crimes (Catapult, 2018) and Tiny Nightmares (Catapult, 2020). You can find him online at lincolnmichel.com and @thelincoln.
Dawnie Walton is the author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, winner of the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Audie Award for Fiction. Her debut novel was also longlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was named one of the best books of 2021 by The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, and former U.S. President Barack Obama. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stony Brook University, and the cofounder and editorial director of Ursa, an audio production company celebrating short fiction from underrepresented voices. Her second novel is forthcoming from Pamela Dorman/Viking in summer 2027. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Stephanie Wambugu lives in New York City. She was born in Mombasa, Kenya and grew up in New England. Her work appears in The Nation, Granta, frieze, Bookforum, and The Drift. Her debut novel Lonely Crowds was published by Little, Brown in 2025, and was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times, a must read book of 2025 by Time, and was a B&N Discover Prize finalist.
A faculty member of the Creative Writing & Literature Program at The Lichtenstein Center, Meg Wolitzer is program co-director of BookEnds. Her novels include The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife, among others. Wolitzer, who has also written books for young readers, was guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017. She is host of the literary radio show and podcast Selected Shorts.
Reiko Davis
Reiko Davis joined DeFiore and Company in 2016 after four years at Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency. Her tastes encompass propulsive literary and upmarket fiction, expert-driven narrative nonfiction, and middle-grade fiction and nonfiction. She’s particularly seeking family sagas, literary-leaning mysteries and thrillers, coming-of-age novels in unusual settings, and stories grounded in reality, but tinged with something else—a touch of magic or horror. She also loves to rep the occasional linked story collection. In nonfiction, she is looking for a personal story that illuminates a greater subject or analysis. In all of these areas, she strives to support underrepresented voices. Raised in Kansas City, MO, she graduated from Brown University. She lives in Jersey City with her partner and cairn terrier Norman. For a more detailed manuscript wish list and her client list, please find them here.
Calvert Morgan
Calvert Morgan, who recently joined Enliven Endeavors as a senior literary agent, is a longtime proponent of emerging literary voices. As executive editor at Riverhead Books and Harper, he has worked with groundbreaking fiction writers including Brandon Taylor, Jess Walter, Lidia Yuknavitch, Akwaeke Emezi, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Eloghosa Osunde, Caoilinn Hughes, Shannon Pufahl, Kate Zambreno, Blake Butler, Kristen Arnett, and Edward Carey. He has also published award-winning and bestselling nonfiction by Roxane Gay, Eula Biss, Jerry Saltz, Lauren Redniss, Stanley Crouch, and Molly Crabapple, among many others. As editorial director of the influential paperback originals program at Harper Perennial, he launched the short fiction project Fifty-Two Stories, publishing early work by writers including Catherine Lacey, Amity Gaige, Emma Straub, Brandon Hobson, Mitchell S. Jackson, Jamie Quatro, and Kelli Jo Ford. Cal also sits on the board of the Center for Fiction, America’s leading organization devoted to fiction, and served as its chair during its transition to Brooklyn, where it has become one of the nation’s most celebrated literary spaces.
Soumeya Roberts
Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts joined HG Literary as an agent in 2017. Soumeya represents award-winning and best-selling authors in literary and upmarket fiction, narrative non-fiction, and memoir, including Tara M. Stringfellow, Rosalie Knecht, Debra Jo Immergut, Melissa Coss Aquino, Fernando A. Flores, and Sonora Jha, among others. She also represents a curated list across creative fields including design, craft, and lifestyle by makers such as Darryl Cheng, Rachel Corry, Luke Pyenson and Alex Bleeker, and Tuft the World. She is seeking new voices in fiction and narrative nonfiction, especially stories about dynamic relationships between complex but sympathetic characters; families, siblings, and motherhood; social commentary; unconventional settings and subcultures; our relationship with land, nature, and animals; and controlled experiments with form. She is particularly, but not exclusively, interested in work that investigates or reflects on the post-colonial world, marginalized and liminal spaces, and narratives by people of color. In non-fiction, she is primarily looking for idea-driven or voice-forward memoirs, personal essay collections, and narrative non-fiction of all stripes. Soumeya is not looking for fantasy, science fiction, religious books, commercial romance, middle grade, young adult, or picture books.
Angeline Rodriguez
Angeline joined WME in 2022 after serving as an editor at Penguin Random House and Hachette Book Group, where she worked with a variety of fiction in genre, upmarket commercial, and literary categories, as well as select platform-driven nonfiction. She specializes in speculative fiction and loves high-concept stories that push the boundaries between genres. She is looking to work with writers that have a keen sense of worldbuilding in both real and surreal landscapes and is particularly passionate about highlighting underrepresented voices in new ways. She is first generation Venezuelan American, and now lives in New York.
Notable Work by past BookEnds Fellows
Important Dates and FAQs:
Required Meeting Dates
Fellowship Ten (2026-2027)
Virtual orientation: May 12, 2026 (3-4 pm EST), and May 19, 26, and June 2, 2026 1-4 pm EST
Writers Conference: July 15-19, 2026
Virtual retreat: January 16, 2027, 1-4 pm EST
Writers Conference: TBA - Summer 2027
Total tuition is $10,400 (subject to change), paid in fall and spring in two lump
sums. There is also the option of a payment schedule that divides each half-payment
into three, each paid over the course of three months.
In addition, program fellows are expected to attend the Southampton Writers Conference. Typically, housing and food costs for the conference run approximately $1,000. We have a more exact estimate for these costs by the time of the interviews.
In addition, program fellows are expected to attend the Southampton Writers Conference. Typically, housing and food costs for the conference run approximately $1,000. We have a more exact estimate for these costs by the time of the interviews.
The BookEnds Page One Endowment allows us to remit a portion of BookEnds fees for
select students with genuine need. There is an option to apply for scholarship funding
in the BookEnds application.
There are no full scholarships or stipends. There are no travel scholarships.
There are no full scholarships or stipends. There are no travel scholarships.
Applications go live November 1. Applications close on December 20 or once we receive
fifty applications, whichever comes first. We will only accept one manuscript per
writer. Interviews take place in March. Admitted fellows will be notified in early
April, and must accept within seven days of receiving the acceptance letter.
The weekly commitment to BookEnds is about 20-25 hours. Most BookEnds fellows have
both full-time jobs and family commitments, and fit in the work in the early mornings,
late at night, and/or while commuting. How to prioritize writing is a question for
all writers, and this is a part of the conversation and support throughout the fellowship
and in the alumni group.
The fellowship begins in May 2025 with readings of your podmates’ manuscripts and
four virtual meetings in May and June. The program ends with graduation and the alumni
retreat at the Southampton Writers Conference in July 2026.
BookEnds is a non-credit program. Most participants have completed a Creative Writing
MFA, though it is not required.
Our alums continue the community beyond the fellowship year with critique and accountability
meetings, as well as a six-times yearly visiting author series, which includes guests
such as Matt Bell, Melissa Chadburn, Laura Warrell, Peter Ho Davies, Rebecca Makkai,
Courtney Maum, Alice McDermott, Jim Shepard, and many others.