Reflections from the 2023 Jack Hazard Fellows
I discovered I was really writing about the limits of meritocracy and feminism.
Ariana Kelly
Boston University Academy
Boston, MA
Project: Lay Me Down Like a Stone: A Memoir
Throughout the summer, the scope of my project both expanded and gained greater focus. That is, I thought I was writing a recovery memoir, and I am, but as I thought and wrote more, I discovered I was really writing about the limits of meritocracy and feminism, at least as promised by American culture. This awareness helped me restructure the book in a way that allowed me to explore these larger subjects. (There is more to be done in this regard, as I think there are several sections of the book that want “thickening” for lack of a better term.) This realization is a perfect example of how time is so crucial in a writer’s process, because, in my case, time helped me write into a greater psychological truth.
My writing matters and is more than a passionate pursuit, but just as valid as the profession of teaching.
Sahar Mustafah
Homewood-Flossmoor High School
Flossmoor, IL
Project: The Tree of Life & Other Stories
Winning the Jack Hazard fellowship affirmed several things for me. Foremost, my writing matters and is more than a passionate pursuit, but just as valid as the profession of teaching. Secondly, traveling for research proves my writing doesn't have to be an isolated experience. Beyond books, Google, interviews, and my own lived experiences, I was craving a more intimate connection to the cultural art centering my short story collection: tatreez تطريز. And when I say intimate, I don’t mean merely close proximity to this particular Palestinian embroidery as I’ve been surrounded by its living artifacts all my life. Before its contemporary reclamation, tatreez was primarily incorporated into the traditional thobe (folk dress). My paternal relatives from Al Bireh, a town bordering Ramallah in the West Bank, wore thawbs.Yet, I hadn’t consciously considered its weight in terms of Palestinian identity and how it transformed into a symbol of resistance during the first Intifada. In a 2021 cohort with Wafa Ghnaim of Tatreez and Tea, I was (re)introduced to the complex history of tatreez as an art form.
This has haunted me and heightened my sense of urgency to finish what’s left to be done.
Shareen K. Murayama
Henry J. Kaiser High School
Honolulu, HI
Project: How to Kill a Factory Girl & Baabaa and Jiji Series: Novellas
Another writer friend sent me a quote from Rick Rubin, about “the danger of living with the unfinished project for too long is that the more often an artist is exposed to a particular draft of a work, the more final that form can biome in their mind.” This has haunted me and heightened my sense of urgency to finish what’s left to be done. Even with the chaotic, long hours of prepping for the new school year, we went back Aug. 1st, I’ve taken to writing in the side room in the evenings, free of distractions, in order to complete the last 20% of revisions. I can’t wait to be “done.” I am so, so grateful for this opportunity!
Mahalo piha!
This reporting trip helped me remember that, at its best, writing makes the world feel larger and fuller.
EMILY HARNETT
The Haverford School
Haverford, PA
Project: The Other Side of Forgetting : Essays
It was so moving to see, for the first time, a place I’ve read and thought about so much over the years; and to realize that the force of my interest, and other people’s faith in my ability to express it, allowed me to be there. In the agony of the drafting process, the world often contracts around me, around the document, around whichever unforgivably terrible paragraph I’m sulking over at the moment. But this reporting trip helped me remember that, at its best, writing makes the world feel larger and fuller – that the world is worth thinking about, worth writing about, one humiliating sentence at a time. Thank you, again, for reminding me of that; it has truly changed my life, and my writing, for the better.
I’m pumped to continue this process of inquiry and discovery.
t’ai freedom ford
Benjamin Banneker Academy
Brooklyn, NY
Project: The Surge: A Novel
I’m super excited about the project and am really grateful for the time I had to get out of New York and begin to ask and answer questions about this project. Considering the novel was but a speck of an idea, when I made the grant proposal, I feel like it has grown a great deal. I’ve been able to flesh out characters, setting, and plot outlines. I also created a glossary of terms, defining all the technical aspects of this world that’s being created. I’ve learned so much about my main character Quark, fka Olivia. I was able to sketch out some conflicts related to her familial identity.
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been going to the Center for Fiction to work on this project. I appreciate being in this space surrounded by books and writers who are also furiously at work on their projects. As I stated during our zoom check-in, I’m a slow writer, but the momentum I have gained is exciting. I’m pumped to continue this process of inquiry and discovery.
I am riding a wave of momentum and I plan to continue to write daily.
Elizabeth DiNuzzo
The Albany Academies
Albany, NY
Project: The Foreverness: A Memoir
I am riding a wave of momentum and I plan to continue to write daily. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The very fact of having being selected as one of fourteen lucky Fellows from among hundreds of worthy applicants is the subtler and, arguably, the more enduring prize.
Vernon C. Wilson
Horace Mann School
Bronx, NY
Project: True History of the Inner City: A Novel
I was excited, gratified, and deeply humbled last March upon receiving the news that I had been chosen as a member of the 2023 cohort of Jack Hazard Fellows. The very fact of having being selected as one of fourteen lucky Fellows from among hundreds of worthy applicants is the subtler and, arguably, the more enduring prize. Because my full-time job is teacher and not novelist, and because teaching is such a demanding (and thrillingly rewarding) occupation, it’s easy overlook—and sometimes to forget!—even in my own mind, the fact that I am also a committed fiction writer. And on top of teaching, the life of a devoted husband and father demands so much of my time and energy that I can find myself doubting the reality, and the rationality, of my creative ambitions. Yet the Jack Hazard has allowed me to see that my writing…well, it matters. It matters to me, of course, but it may well matter to others.
I experienced having to carve out the chronology of this plot and sense where I might be lingering too long, in order to get to the heart of this story.
LETICIA DEL TORO
Campolindo High School
Moraga, CA
Project: Return to Azucena : A Novel
Did I advance on the novel? Yes, I conducted research with family members I traveled to see in Guadalajara and Mexico City. I felt the rhythms of village and market life, immersing myself in the sensations of an older, indigenous and colonial Mexico in Oaxaca City and its environs. I read through many key history books to learn about French immigrants, early Mexican feminists and Mexican life from the 1890-s through the 1950s. My parental characters are products of all these time periods, even though they were born in the 1930s. They carry an accumulation of history, as do I, for that matter. I produced 81 pages in what felt like very real emotional archaeology. Some of these chapters left me quite exhausted. Honestly, they felt difficult for me to engage with, knowing how my family eventually changed and suffered the real deaths of my two brothers and my father. I experienced having to carve out the chronology of this plot and sense where I might be lingering too long, in order to get to the heart of this story. I wrote in different points of view, to distinguish the different storylines. This experimentation, is a very necessary part of the process. I have progressed in generating new material, concrete knowledge of setting and history, and mostly emotional engagement with the project which will allow me to treat it with more urgency and relevance, than if it had just been a vague idea in my head. I am extremely grateful for the monetary support and framework provided by the Jack Hazard Fellowship, as this project only would have been chipped away at in tiny increments had I not received this award.
What I mean to say is someone else called balls and strikes, dropped off fraternity boys at the bar, delivered pizzas and breadsticks, and I wrote and wrote and wrote and lived and loved.
Jeff Kass
Pioneer High School
Ann Arbor, MI
Project: Forgotten Man: A Novel
What I mean to say is thank you, Jack Hazard.
This summer, I did not miss my chances. I visited
my daughter on Cape Cod and watched
her body-surf as if, over and over, she
were each time emerging from the ocean’s
womb to enter a joyful new world, drove
with my son to his baseball tournament
in Iowa (where we even made a side
trip and played catch at the Field
of Dreams Field), and, mostly, crashed
the truck of my brain into the tree limb
of my laptop, words and ideas scattering
like chipmunks across the page. What I mean
to say is someone else called balls and strikes,
dropped off fraternity boys at the bar, delivered
pizzas and breadsticks, and I wrote
and wrote and wrote and lived
and loved.
Validation is precious, and I’ll be holding onto it in the months ahead as I work to finish this book.
Kate McQuade
Phillips Academy
Andover, MA
Project: Hollow Arts: A Novel
As far as where my project goes from here: I’m planning to use this summer’s momentum to build in more regular weekend work sessions during the school year. That’s something I struggle to prioritize normally; as previously mentioned, teaching and parenting generally take up my full focus during the academic year, with frantic spurts of writing relegated to whatever time I can scrape together during summers and breaks. But my novel is under contract at Mariner with an August 2024 deadline, and I plan to take full advantage of this year of work, which means being more intentional about making time for writing amid teaching. Sincere thanks to all of you at the New Literary Project for giving me a sense this summer of what it means to honor both halves of my career at the same time. That validation is precious, and I’ll be holding onto it in the months ahead as I work to finish this book.
This summer I learned my writing exploded in magnitude. It’s all due to time and money. The grant confirmed my belief that money is essential in supporting a writer’s life.
William Archila
STEAM Virtual Academy
Los Angeles, CA
Project: No One's Watching: a memoir out of El Salvador
Usually, I get up early in the morning before anyone in the family is up and write for about an hour every day, but with this grant I was able to register my children in extracurricular activities and work for at least 3-4 hours a day. In addition, visiting my mother allowed me to further dig into her memory to fill in details where my memory failed and meditate on why it failed, especially the last day out of El Salvador and our trajectory to the US-Mexico border. I think it also gave me the confidence to continue writing my project.
This summer I learned my writing exploded in magnitude. It’s all due to time and money. The grant confirmed my belief that money is essential in supporting a writer’s life. Without it, writers from low-income communities will have a difficult time accomplishing their creative goals. This explains why most books in the market come from writers who are well funded or either earning a high income or come from privileged families. Coming from a financially challenged community and from a family with no higher education, it’s been a struggle to support my writing life. However, this grant changed all that, at least for this summer.
The story fulfilled some of my expectations but more importantly (like all good art) it brought me surprise and delight (and even fear).
Ky-Phong Tran
Long Beach Renaissance High School for the Arts
Long Beach, CA
Project: A Thing Called Exodus: Short Stories
The Jack Hazard Fellowship has changed me and my writing life profoundly, in ways both big and small, and in ways I most likely will not realize for years to come. I’ve tried my best to articulate and categorize the support it has given me, but I know that its lasting influence is yet to be determined.
Most tangibly, the Jack Hazard Fellowship has allowed me to finish a new story for my short story collection, which is set in the Vietnamese Diaspora. I wrote an 8,000 word draft though I know it needs a lot of revision. I have been trying to write this story for over ten years but it’s been derailed by life and work many times. I am ecstatic that I could finish it in one summer. The story fulfilled some of my expectations but more importantly (like all good art) it brought me surprise and delight (and even fear).
I am most grateful for these last two categories that the Jack Hazard Fellowship has provided for me. I am inspired by the work of my fellow fellows and I don’t just mean their writing (though I know it’s amazing). I am inspired that they teach full time and are still pursuing their writing careers. Teaching is hard. Writing is hard. Knowing there is a group of writers out there struggling to juggle both makes me feel less alone. Knowing we are now bound through the Jack Hazard Fellowship lets me know I have a support group of teacher-writers spread out all over the nation.
As for progress on the project during the fellowship, I was able to complete a fourth draft of the novel, one that I began that spring break this past April.
Tyson Morgan
Crystal Springs Uplands School
Hillsborough, CA
Project: The Immaculate: A Novel
This has been an especially productive summer for me due to the Jack Hazard Fellowship. I actually put the funds to use in early April, securing childcare during my spring break, and then I was able to secure childcare throughout the summer when in the past that’s been a challenge.
As for progress on the project during the fellowship, I was able to complete a fourth draft of the novel, one that I began that spring break this past April.
Without being able to fully focus on my writing each day, I’d say that it would have taken me until October or November of this year in order to reach the point where I am now on my project.
Progress can feel slow at times, but when the text starts to become more magical, more emotional, more immersive in revision, it feels like it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.
Victoria Maria Castells
Miami Arts Charter School
Miami, FL
Project: Tired as We Are: A Novel
This summer has given me the insight that you don’t always have to go page by page, tenaciously getting to the end and leaving your pages be no matter what. Restarting from the beginning, rewriting early sections, doing writing exercises on the side have only helped me in getting more excited about the novel draft! Progress can feel slow at times, but when the text starts to become more magical, more emotional, more immersive in revision, it feels like it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.
The Jack Hazard fellowship has given me the opportunity to wrestle with my own ideas, tease out what’s most important, and make the process feel more wondrous and satisfying.
Thanks so much for giving all of the fellows this year so much purpose. In the best of ways, I feel like the work has only just started!