Award-winning poet and Creative Writing faculty Chris Santiago joins the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) roster of 2025 Creative Writing Fellows.
NEA’s Creative Writing Fellowships program was established to “strengthen the literary arts ecosystem” by supporting writers at various stages of their careers. Through the fellowship, the program awards $50,000 to published authors to enable them to set aside writing time, as well as time for research, traveling, and “general career advancement.”
The award operates on a two-year cycle, with poetry fellowships awarded in odd-numbered years and prose in even-numbered years. Applicants are screened through an anonymous process, during which writing samples are primarily reviewed for artistic excellence and merit.
Santiago is the author of Tula, which won the 2016 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry, and Small Wars Manual, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in April. His works have appeared in various publications, including Guernica, Conduit, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Water~Stone Review. Santiago has previously received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Kundiman, and the Mellon Foundation/ACLS.
Find the full list of 2025 Creative Writing Fellows at the NEA announcement.