Author Jacqueline Woodson at the Kweli Literary Festival
Author Autumn Allen speaks about Afrofuturism on a panel at the Kweli Literary Festival.
Author Brian Young at the Kweli Literary Festival
Numerous BIPOC authors who were first published in the Kweli Journal are going on to award-winning careers
— Victoria Sanders, founder of Victoria Sanders & Associates Literary Agency
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA, August 28, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Writer and editor Laura Pegram founded Kweli Journal in 2009 when she herself was recently disabled and learning to walk again. Her mission was simple: to give back to the community she loved.
Fifteen years later, Kweli is a literary giant where aspiring writers and creatives of color learn and discover the craft, dozens of award-winning writers have found their voice, and acclaimed writers come to share their expertise.
Kweli’s graduates include some of the hottest names in all writing genres, including:
• Naima Coster, author of the New York Times bestseller What’s Mine and Ours, is the 2020 National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award winner. Her short story “Cold,” a chapter in her second novel, was first published in Kweli Journal in June 2016.
• LaToya Watkins, whose short story collection “Holler, Child” was nominated for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, published one of her first short stories in the Kweli Journal in January 2012. “By the time I got the acceptance email from Kweli, I had already received so many rejections that I was close to giving up,” Watkins said. “That acceptance and the journal’s belief in my work were exactly what I needed to believe in myself as a writer.”
• The short story “Panagbenga” by Daphne Palais Andreades, a finalist for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the first major English-language literary prize celebrating creativity and excellence in fiction by women and nonbinary writers in Canada and the United States, was published in Kweli Journal in April 2019.
• Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light, collaborated with Kweli on a short story in 2012 that was later included in her debut collection, Sabrina & Corina, which won the American Book Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award, won the PEN/Bingham Prize, and won the Saroyan International Prize. “Early in my writing career, the editors at Kweli recognized the strength of my stories at a time when very few magazines even offered me a formal rejection,” said Fajardo-Anstine, the keynote speaker at the 2018 Kweli International Literary Festival.
• In 2012, Nicole Dennis-Benn attended Kweli’s first literary conference. Kweli published one of her short stories in May 2014, which became a chapter in Dennis-Benn’s 2016 Lambda Literary Award-winning debut novel, Here Comes the Sun. Her 2019 novel, Patsy, became a New York Times Editors Choice, a Financial Times Critics Choice, and a Today Show Read with Jena Book Club selection.
• Young adult fiction prodigy Jason Reynolds (“Long Way Down,” “Patina,” “Miles Morales: Spiderman”) was the keynote speaker during Kweli’s Color of Children’s Literature Conference at Teacher’s College April 19-21.
Kweli’s 15th anniversary anthology will be published in spring 2025 and will include short stories by each of the above authors and an introduction by National Book Award and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Edwidge Danticat. Danticat will close the 2024 Kweli International Literary Festival on September 30.
Kweli hosts the annual Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference in the spring, a Kweli International Literary Festival in the summer, a year-long Kweli Fellowship Program for new and emerging BIPOC writers, publishes a quarterly journal, hosts a free in-person reading series open to the public, and a free virtual craft series: The Third Eye on IG LIVE.
Poets & Writers and Publishers Weekly have regularly covered the Kweli conferences, a testament to the quality of the programming and the brilliance and generosity of the participating writers.
“Through Kweli, Laura Pegram has encouraged some of today’s most important BIPOC voices, remarkable, timely, and necessary voices,” said Victoria Sanders of Victoria Sanders & Associates Literary Agency. “VSA represents Kweli alumnae Cozbi A. Cabrera, DéLana RA Dameron, and Princess Joy L. Perry and is a proud long-time supporter of Kweli’s mission.”
Laura still lives on the fifth floor where she founded Kweli, battling an autoimmune disease that has hospitalized her many times and forced her to use a walker and leg braces. She remains true to her life’s work, which grew out of her love of literature that helped her through a difficult childhood. After her mother got Laura and her six siblings library cards, books became her refuge – the Harlem native practically lived in the George Bruce Library on West 125th Street.
Laura attended Stony Brook University, where she took a course in children’s literature with poet and activist June Jordan. Jordan became a lifelong friend and mentor who taught Laura that she was limited only by her dreams. Laura was accepted into medical school but was unable to complete her degree due to repeated hospitalizations. The arts became Laura’s oxygen. As a teaching artist, she created curriculum for after-school programs in the community. Laura is the determined author of several books, including the picture books “A Windy Day,” “Rainbow Is Our Face,” and “Daughter’s Day Blues,” which took ten years to publish. Her greatest thrill is giving aspiring authors the opportunity to have their works reach the audience they deserve.
“There have been so many special moments over the last 15 years, but nothing compares to when an author hands me a signed copy of their first published work and tells me that I helped them find their voice and gain the confidence to put their story on paper,” she said. “It touches me every time.”
Laura has made Kweli the go-to resource for Black, Indigenous, and people of color hopefuls to get published—and for the publishers seeking such work. Her energy, drive, genius, and determination are unparalleled. Despite her disabilities, she does everything she can to keep Kweli financially afloat, often teaching online workshops. She keeps participant fees for Kweli conferences deliberately affordable and offers generous scholarships to many.
Please support Kweli with a tax-deductible financial contribution at https://kwelijournal.kindful.com/.
With your support, we hope to raise $25,000 in September.
Clemon Richardson
Clem Richardson
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