Kimbilio’s premiere program is an annual retreat where we welcoming each year’s new class of Kimbilio Fellows. The community gathers for a week of writing, solitude, and solidarity. In 2025, the retreat will relocate to Wildacres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Kimbilio also partners with Write On Door County to provide individual residencies for our Fellows at free or substantially reduced rates. The Community of Writers provides scholarships to our Fellows to attend their summer conference.
The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize is a collaborative project with Four Way Books. A celebration and affirmation of the best in contemporary fiction, the contest is open to writers of the African Diaspora. The prize is open to all diaspora writers and the winning entry is selected by a distinguished fiction writer.
2025: THERE’S NOTHING LEFT FOR YOU HERE by Allegra Solomon
Selected by Carolyn Ferrell
2023: MULBERRY STREET STORIES by Mary McLaughlin Slechta
Selected by Deesha Phillyaw
2109: MALAWI’S SISTERS by Melanie S. Hatter
Selected by Edwidge Dandicat
The Kimbilio Mentorship Project matches developing and emerging writers with writers who are further along in their careers. Mentors and mentees are provided with resources to support both their work together as well as the mentees professional development goals.
Phase One of the project pairs current Fellows who are close to finishing a first novel or collection of short stories with Kimbilio Faculty members. Fellows are spending the year getting their manuscripts ready for the submission process.
Michealjulius Adani
Sophia Russell
Tochukwu Okafor
Joanne Sills
Angela Flournoy
Lauren Francis-Sharma
Carolyn Ferrell
Ravi Howard
Readings are hosted at Left Bank Books; at High/Low, the St. Louis literary arts center which houses Kimbilio; and at other local venues.
We also partner with other literary organizations to host readings around the country. Previous readings have been hosted in Detroit, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, among other cities, on the campus of SMU and Sarah Lawrence College; and as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival.
You can make an online donation or support our authors by purchasing one of their books from our online store
