Past Fellows
Marisa Renee Lee
Marisa Renee Lee is a called-upon grief advocate, entrepreneur, and bestselling author of the award-winning book Grief is Love, Living with Loss. A Former Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement and a Senior Advisor on the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama, Lee regularly contributes to Elle, Vogue, The Atlantic, MSNBC, and CNN and serves as an expert for Ritual's well-being app. Praised by Elaine Welteroth as "the friend we all wish we had in times of need," Marisa is celebrated for her ability to blend research-backed advice with profound empathy. Her insights help others manage the complex emotions of loss and articulate their experiences with empathy.
Krishan Trotman
Krishan Trotman is the Vice President and Publisher at Legacy Lit, an innovative imprint she founded under Hachette Books in 2020. Legacy Lit is committed to elevating issues, authors, and communities often overlooked, championing equality, equity, and inclusion through its mission-driven commercial works. The imprint seeks to provide a platform for voices that challenge and enrich our cultural dialogue.
Since joining Hachette Books in 2016, Trotman has collaborated with authors who are candid, bold, and unafraid to challenge the norm. Her impressive portfolio includes a range of award-winning and New York Times bestsellers, featuring works by figures such as Congressman John Lewis, journalist Stephanie Land, and MSNBC political analyst Malcolm Nance. Krishan is also the co-author of the Queens of the Resistance series and has been featured in top publications and media outlets, including The New York Times, Essence Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Shondaland, and CSPAN.
Heather Aimee O’Neill
Heather Aimee O’Neill has worked with hundreds of novelists, memoirists, short-story and essay writers in her roles as the assistant director of the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop and as an independent editor and writing coach. She helps writers start, finish, polish, and find publication for their work. Many of her students and clients have gone on to publish with major publishers, including Viking, W.W. Norton, Harper Collins, Double Day, Flatiron Books, and Simon & Schuster, among others.
Ben Taub
Ben Taub is a staff writer at the New Yorker. He has written for the magazine about jihadism, crime, conflict, climate change, exploration, and human rights, on four continents and at sea. In 2020, he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, for his work on the lasting effects, on former detainees and guards, of American abuses in Guantánamo Bay. He has also received a National Magazine Award, two consecutive George Polk Awards, a Livingston Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and other honors, and his work has appeared in recent editions of “The Best American Magazine Writing” and “The Best American Travel Writing.” Taub also received the ASME Next Award for Journalists Under 30, and was named one of Forbes's 30 Under 30 in Media.
Ryan Calais Cameron
Ryan Calais Cameron is an award-winning writer, actor, and theatre-maker. His credits include: Paramount, Sky Studios, West End’s Bush Theatre, Royal Court, BBC3, and C4, among others. His play, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy made an extended run on the West End and was nominated for "Best New Play" at the Olivier Awards.
Doreen St. Félix
Doreen St. Félix is a writer from Brooklyn. She was formerly editor-at-large for Lenny Letter, a newsletter from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, and has been on staff The New Yorker since 2017, where she has served as the television critic since 2019. Previously, she was a culture writer at MTV News. Her writing has appeared in the Times Magazine, New York, Vogue, The Fader, and Pitchfork. St. Félix was named on the Forbes “30 Under 30” media list in 2016. In 2017, she was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary, and, in 2019, she won in the same category.
Jenny Zhang
Jenny Zhang is the author of the story collection Sour Heart and the poetry collection My Baby First Birthday. Her work appears in The New York Times, Poetry, Harpers, N+1, Best American Poetry, and other publications. She’s written television and film for A24, HBO, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon.
Jake Brunger
Jake Brunger is a musical theatre writer, screenwriter, and lyricist. Jak’s stage adaptation of The Great British Bake Off received four stars in The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer, and Daily Mail and recently played a limited 12-week season at the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End. His debut feature film Love Sarah reached #1 at the New Zealand Box Office and #4 at the Australian Box Office. It was released on Netflix in July 2022 reaching #5 in Netflix’s Top 10 Films.
Rebecca Abrams
Rebecca Abrams is an award-winning author, journalist and literary critic. She teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford and is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. Her debut novel, Touching Distance won the MJA Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize for Literature. Her non-fiction works include Woman in a Man’s World, The Playful Self, and When Parents Die. A former columnist for The Daily Telegraph and feature writer for The Guardian, she is the recipient of an Amnesty International Press Award and is a regular literary critic for The Financial Times.