We are excited to announce our 2023 fellows: Benjamin Burgess, Emerald GoingSnake, Aimee Inglis, Kalehua Kim, Erin Marie Lynch, Melanie Merle, Tyler Mitchell, and m.s. RedCherries! 

This year's cohort will join returning fellows: Kenzie Allen, Amber McCrary, Mary Leauna Christensen, Max Early, Casandra Lopez, and Arianne True for a week-long mentoring retreat in Door County, Wisconsin. 

The five-day gathering will create a space for inspiration, set aside dedicated time for participants to develop their craft, and offer guidance on the practice and business of poetry. This year’s retreat focus is Indigenous Eco-Poetry, and our schedule will include workshops, craft talks, and outdoor explorations in the natural areas of Door County. The week’s events will also involve inter-art activities, including a video project with Overpass Light Brigade, poetry and music with Wade Fernandez, and public readings by faculty and fellows. 

2023 Fellows

Benjamin V. Burgess is a writer, artist, and teacher. He grew up at Little Earth in Minneapolis. He is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. His mother is from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He draws inspiration for his creative works from experiences in all three communities. He has a Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California Davis, and is working on his Creative Writing MFA at Hamline University.

Emerald "noquisi" GoingSnake is a poet from the Giduwa and Mvskoke nations in Oklahoma. She is the recipient of the Goldia Cooksey Memorial Award from the University of Oklahoma and served as a panelist at the 2022 Western Literature Association Conference. Emerald is currently studying creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM.

Aimee Inglis is a member of the Osage Nation born and raised in Anaheim, California, near the Santa Ana (Wanaawna) river and is active with the Northern and Southern California Osage diaspora groups. She has worked in social movement organizations for housing and climate justice for fifteen years, and currently practices herbalism, tarot, songwriting, and poetry, and is an MFA student in Creative Writing, Poetry, at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Kalehua Kim is a poet living in the Seattle area. Born of Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese descent, her multicultural background informs much of her work. Currently pursuing a master’s degree through the Rainier Writing Workshop, her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, Calyx, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women and ‘Ōiwi, A Native Hawaiian Journal.

Erin Marie Lynch is the author of Removal Acts, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in October 2023. Her writing appears in New England Review, Gulf Coast, DIAGRAM, Narrative, Best New Poets, and other publications. She has been the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and the Hugo House. Born and raised in Oregon, Erin is a descendant of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California, where she serves as the managing editor of Ricochet Editions.

Melanie Merle - An enrollee of the Chickasaw Nation, Melanie Merle grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and attended Regis university in Denver, where she received degrees in English and philosophy in 1991, and her MFA in creative writing from Regis’ Mile High MFA Program in 2018. She chose a double track: creative nonfiction and poetry. At Regis, she studied with a rich variety of teachers, ultimately completing her degree under the mentorship of Chip Livingston and Adrianne Kalfopoulou. Melanie’s poem DownRiver was selected a runner-up for the inaugural James Welch Prize through Poetry Northwest in 2021, and subsequently chosen for inclusion in the anthology, Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions (University of Alabama Press). In 2022, Melanie was honored to share the James Welch Prize with In-Na-Po Fellow, Halee Kirkwood. She also has poems featured in Hairstreak Butterfly Review and forthcoming in The New South, and she is an associate editor for the literary and art journal, Inverted Syntax. Melanie lives in Denver with her best friend and partner, Nate, and her familiar of twelve years, Charlie.

Tyler Mitchell is a Diné poet from Tsaile, Arizona. He is of the Bitter Water clan born for the One Who Walks Around Clan. His maternal grandfather is of the Coyote Pass clan and his paternal grandfather is of the Towering House Clan. He attained his MFA in Creative Writing at Northern Arizona University. Tyler is the editor of Salina Bookshelf, Inc. and is a member of the Saad Bee Hózhǫ́ Diné Writers’ Collective. His poems have been featured in POETRY Magazine and Green Linden Press. He currently writes out of Flagstaff, Arizona.

m.s. RedCherries is a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. She recieved a J.D. from Arizona State University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut collection is forthcoming from Penguin Books in 2024.