2023 Fellow’s Bios
Celine Aenlle-Rocha was born in Miami Beach and raised in Los Angeles, and now lives in New York City with her husband and their cat, T’challa. She studied English and Spanish at Kenyon College before moving to NYC to work in publishing. Celine later completed her MFA in Fiction at Columbia University, where she was Co-President of Our Word, a student group for minority writers. Currently, Celine is a Lecturer in University Writing and Writing Center Consultant in Columbia’s English Department. She also reads submissions to The Kenyon Review, where she interned as an undergraduate, and teaches college essay and creative writing at Writopia Lab. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring the city, knitting, and spending time with friends and family. Celine has received fellowships to attend the Key West Literary Seminar, Macondo Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, as well as residencies at the Hambidge Center, Collar Works, the Fairhope Center for the Arts, and Art Farm. She is currently writing two multi-generational novels inspired by her Louisiana Creole and Cuban family. Celine is absolutely thrilled to attend the Kimbilio Summer Retreat and to connect with fellow Black writers.
Kukuwa Ashun (she/her) is a writer and editor from Brooklyn, New York. A progeny of Ghanaian immigrants, Kukuwa holds a BA in creative writing from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in fiction writing from New York University. She was a 2021 Kweli Writing Fellow and a 2023 Artist-in-Residence at the Silver Sun Foundation. She is currently working on a novel.
Growing up in St. Louis, Samuel Autman was a St. Louis Post Dispatch paperboy, later returning as a reporter to help document the city’s slide into becoming the nation’s murder capital. Along the way he earned an undergraduate degree in journalism two hours away in Columbia, a town he loved and considered never leaving. For the Tulsa World, his first newspaper, Autman once chased down a tornado at OSU in Stillwater. Another time he shook hands with the late evangelist Oral Roberts. Curiosity drew him to Salt Lake City, where he became The Salt Lake Tribune’s first Black reporter. Competing with the Mormon-church owned Deseret News made Utah his best journalistic experience. Excited to live under San Diego’s perfect sun, he landed at The San Diego Union-Tribune, an organization run with a militaristic vision – the perfect place to leave daily newspapers. Getting his MFA in New York City was the only time he lived in a real city. He teaches creative writing at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where John Dillinger scored his biggest heist. Autman’s biggest heist was getting tenure in 2015 and an 18-month paid sabbatical, enabling him to travel to Europe, Mexico, South America and North Africa.
Savannah Bowen is a Caribbean-American writer, artist, and educator, from Mt. Vernon, New York. Savannah has served as a language assistant in France, and a teacher and development worker in Jacmel, Haiti, both experiences which greatly inform her creative writing. She has also worked from the other side of the page as an assistant at Serendipity Literary Agency and assistant editor at HarperCollins. In her own writing Savannah creates stories about black girlhood and the quest for home as a daughter of Haitian, Barbadian, and African American diaspora. Her words have appeared in Black Powerful: Black Voices Reimagine Revolution, SONKU magazine, and the New York Writers Coalition Black Writers Journal. She’s currently an MFA candidate at the University of Kentucky, where she studies under writers such as DaMaris B. Hill and Crystal Wilkinson. Savannah is co-founder of Writers Rest, a literary community for black women. She is also an avid swimmer, a self-taught jewelry maker, and an independent film junkie.
Kivel Carson is a storyteller, daydreamer, and organizer living in the South, making work that imagines Black liberation rooted in the magic of our collective past and explores the power of interdependence. I use speculative fiction to interrogate ugly truths, conjure new possibilities, and push people to see ourselves in new ways that challenge us and dare us to dream.
Jennifer Celestin is a Haitian-American writer, performer, and facilitator. She has performed at numerous venues in New York City, including the Bowery Poetry Club & Café, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, BRIC Arts Media, and El Museo del Barrio. A former EMERGE NYC fellow, Jennifer has also performed and facilitated workshops outside of the US in Montreal and Haiti. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. from New York University, and her M.F.A. in Fiction at CUNY: Queens College. Fluent in English, Haitian Creole, and Spanish, her work explores multilingual imaginations and hybrid identities.
Leesa Fenderson is polishing a collection of short stories. Her work is forthcoming in Joyland Magazine, and appears in Story Magazine, Craft Literary Magazine, Callaloo Journal, Vibe Magazine, Moko Magazine, Paper Darts Magazine, and elsewhere. Leesa was born in Jamaica, grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and currently writes in Kingston, Jamaica and NYC. She is a PhD candidate and Provost Fellow in USC’s Creative Writing and Literature Program. She believes deeply that art and rest are modes of resistance.
Born in the American South, Rob Franklin is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. In his creative writing, Franklin often revisits southern landscapes, exploring fissures of identity: race, class, and the betrayals that can occur in intimate relationships across those lines. A finalist for the New England Review Award for Emerging Writers, he has published short fiction and poetry, and is currently at work on a novel. He also writes criticism and is a co-founder of the social impact fundraising platform Art for Black Lives. Franklin holds a BA in Political Science and Creative Writing from Stanford University and an MFA in Fiction from New York University.
JM Holmes is dad of a one year old Ocean Isaiah Holmes, who is treacherously over-confident in his athletic capabilities so needs a fall-spotter at all times (Frank Ocean, Ocean Vuong and Isaiah Rashad are correlated not causal namesakes). True to Holmes’ genes, he’s so big already he’s thrown out his poor momma’s back. When I’m not drumming with little man, or trying to teach him how to dribble and shoot a basketball, I enjoy farming on our little plot in Altadena California. I used to enjoy writing for TV, but we’re on strike… and quickly becoming outsourced by AI-Comm-Art-Bots.
MaryAnn Ifeanacho is a Nigerian writer with a deep love for literature, psychology. languages, and film. She is fluent in Spanish and has an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. MaryAnn is a mom to the three most adorable cats in the world and a firm believer that bread is ambrosia. She is also passionate about mental health and demystifies and corrects the negative impressions of mental illness in the African society through her writing. In her free time, she loves reading, binge-watching oldies, working out, going on hiking adventures, writing on her blog textamentswithanne.com, and sharing high-octane memes. Currently, she lives in England, where she divides her time between teaching, writing, and daydreaming.
Maya L. James has been night writing and getting in trouble for telling stories for a long time. She grew up in Baltimore, MD surrounded by old women and their stories. Ever since she was a little girl they would sidle up beside her smelling like hard work and peppermints. They needed to unload their troubles, prayers, and blessings on an unbiased ear. This inspired that bookish, only girl child to pursue the writer’s life. A multimedia writer, she loves to blur the lines between genres; between the seen and unseen in order to capture the black magical surrealism of her world. Maya is a graduate of Howard University’s College of Fine Arts where she studied acting and playwriting. She has directed plays on various stages, worked as a playwright, dramaturg, artistic consultant, educator, and editor. She is also a Callaloo poetry fellow, a Watering Hole poetry fellow, a VONA playwriting fellow, and was a HGB Education Fellow of The New York Public Library. Maya is an Olorisa of Yemoja, spiritualist, traveler, dreamer, avid reader, budding herbalist and home chef. Maya currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and is still night writing.
Christiana McClain is a writer from Houston, Texas. When she is not writing, she is reading books and walking her dog. She enjoys scrolling on Tik Tok for hours and spending time with her friends. She considers herself a memory worker and prioritizes the stories and legacy of black women through multidisciplinary lenses.
Celestial Holmes, who goes by the pen name Mbinguni, is an accomplished writer and adventurer with a diverse range of experiences. She has a background in computer programming and spent fifteen years as an Instructional Designer before transitioning to a career in writing. Currently, she works as a Direct Response Copywriter and contributes to BlackGirlNerds.com as a freelance writer. She is also a co-host on the popular Watch Dem Thrones podcast. Mbinguni is a lifelong learner with a passion for exploring new hobbies and experiences. Her interests include archery, horseback riding, and scuba diving, which she enjoys pursuing whenever possible. With her adventurous spirit and keen curiosity, she is always seeking out new opportunities for personal and professional growth. As a Kimbilio Fellow, Mbinguni looks forward to continuing her exploration of writing and storytelling. She is excited to work alongside other talented writers and gain new insights and perspectives on the craft. With her unique background and diverse experiences, Mbinguni brings a fresh perspective to the fellowship and is sure to make a valuable contribution to the community
Lauren Morrow is a Brooklyn-based fiction writer originally from St. Louis, MO. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program and the winner of multiple awards and prizes. She studied dance for most of her life and worked for more than a decade in performing arts publicity–first at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), then at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She returns to BAM and Ailey often and enjoys taking in all forms of art. She is currently a Senior Publicist at Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books (Penguin Random House). She is working on a novel and short story collection.
Tochukwu Okafor is an MFA Fiction candidate at Emerson College and holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a 2021 – 2023 Book Project Fellow at Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop, a 2022 Ucross Foundation Fellow, a 2022 Kurt Brown Prize for Fiction winner, a 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a 2021 – 2022 GrubStreet Emerging Writer Fellow, a 2021 Gish Jen Fiction Fellow, an alumnus of the 2021 Tin House Workshop, and a 2018 Rhodes Scholar finalist. His work has appeared in the 2019 Best Small Fictions, the 2018 Best of the Net, and elsewhere. He has received scholarships, fellowships, grants, and residencies from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the John Anson Kittredge Fund, Aspen Words, Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Atlantic Center for the Arts, the James Merrill House Residency, Iceland Writers Retreat, Ragdale Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts (MASS MoCA), Eckerd College, Worcester Arts Council, and elsewhere. He is at work on a story collection and a novel. He lives in Worcester, MA.
Vincent Omni is a McKnight Doctoral Fellow in the department of English (Creative Writing) at Florida State University. His area of concentration is African-American Literary and Cultural Studies, with a focus on adapting fiction written by writers of the African diaspora for film and television. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kansas and a BA in English from Saint Olaf College (Northfield, MN). Vince’s fiction includes novels, short stories, and screenplays. Like all good fiction, his stories examine conflict inherent in relationships: a woman who, under the pressures of gentrification, converts her dead father’s beloved diner into a high-end café, or a straight father who sabotages his career to raise money for the legal defense of his queer son. His most recent project is Sarge, a former Black Panther forced to put family before principles in 1970’s Louisiana.
Isaiah Frost Rivera (He/They) is a Staten Island born and raised scholar, maker, and black digital speculator pursuing his PhD in the African and African Diaspora Studies program at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include black queer cosmologies, Afro-Latinx and Caribbean expressive modalities, and the intersections between retributive justice and meta-modern horror. They hold a bachelor’s from CUNY Brooklyn College in English with a double minor in LGBTQ Studies and Puerto Rican & Latino Studies. They also hold a master’s in Regional Studies (Latin America and the Caribbean) from Columbia University, as well as a master’s in English from Lehigh University. Isaiah’s fiction centers dispossessed characters that tell fragmented stories of black/queer self-destruction, self-renewal, and self-shattering which all take place in a speculative version of the forgotten borough he proudly calls home. In his free time, Isaiah enjoys schlocky horror films, long bike rides, and baying at the moon.
Sophia Russell developed a love for writing as an undergraduate at Cornell University, where she wrote music and art reviews as well as a weekly column on the arts and social justice issues for the Cornell Daily Sun. After graduation, she worked at magazines like BusinessWeek and Entertainment Weekly before attending the University of Houston Law Center. Sophia lives with her family and practices law in Austin, Texas.
ZM Spalter has always loved reading and libraries. As a child, she was almost never without a book. Her childhood home was filled with art, music, books and global influences. Her formal education ranged from Independent Black Family School (Shule Ya Mapinduzi), public school, prep school, art major at “the Fame” school, undergraduate at Hampton University and a BA from Hampshire College in Women’s and Media Studies. Her professional career began at independent children’s book publisher Barefoot Books and New York Is Book Country. From there she served as managing editor for Harlem Overheard youth-produced newspaper for non-profit Harlem Children’s Zone. After completing the Columbia Publishing Course at Columbia University, she worked as a managing editor at Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s Africana website. She freelanced and cofounded coloredgirls, an online literary magazine for women of color, now defunct. A Brooklyn native, ZM has lived on both US coasts, visited Europe, Asia and Central America and yearns to travel more. Currently, she is reconnecting with the visual arts in her creative practice. She’s never stopped reading and writing and still considers becoming a librarian. She writes Occasionally Impervious on Substack and lives in Tokyo with her husband and their four children.
Channler Twyman is an emerging queer writer based out of Atlanta, GA. He is a Tin House 21′ YA Scholar whose work has appeared across a number of online platforms and publishers. Outside of writing Channler enjoys serving looks, continuously updating his skincare routine, and spending way too much money at anime conventions. He looks forward to making substantial edits on his debut YA novel based on the feedback given during his time at Kimbilio. He’s both thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to learn from and build community with some of the greatest writers the diaspora has to offer.
Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. Her latest book, Mardi Gras Indians, was published by LSU Press in October 2022. A Chicago native, Nikesha works as an Editor at Narrative Initiative and is a columnist with JAX Today. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, ESSENCE, and VOX. She lives in Florida with her two children where they enjoy dancing in the kitchen to afro-beats while washing the dishes. In fact, dancing is one of Nikesha’s favorite pastimes and if there’s a beat with a 2 and 4 you will probably find her rocking to it. Her favorite singer is Janet DaMita Jo Jackson and yes, she was present and accounted for at the kick off of the Together Again tour. Other than writing and dancing, Nikesha enjoys sleeping like the true Leo she is.
Carlos D. Williamson is a Portuguese-speaking writer, editor and journalist. He traveled to São Paulo, Brazil last year as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar and wrote essays and short fiction while reconnecting with his family. He is a former editor and designer at the Chicago Tribune and has served as a fellow at Folha de S.Paulo. His fiction has appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Heavy Feather Review, and Puerto del Sol. A graduate of the Medill School of Journalism, he lives in Chicago.
