A celebratory reading from The Writer’s Center Compass Fellows, past and present!
Join us to celebrate the outstanding writing produced by our Compass Fellows in a quick, fun evening of words and ideas. The Writer’s Center [link id=’2107218′ text=’Compass Fellowship’] supports writers on the rise, and you won’t want to miss what they have to share. Featuring 2021 fellow Shatha Almutawa, 2021 finalist Lorena Ortiz, and past fellows Ofelia Montelongo and Julia Tagliere. Hosted by Eugenia Kim.
RSVP below, and you’ll receive login info for joining the chat via our video conferencing platform, Zoom. FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern. Limited space.
Shatha Almutawa is a khaleeji scholar and poet, and a 2021 Compass Fellow. She is an assistant professor in the philosophy and religion department at American University in Washington, DC, where she teaches courses such as Islamic Resistance to Colonialism and Imperialism. When she is not working with medieval manuscripts, she enjoys reading the work of other Arab and Muslim authors. In 2015-2016, she was a Split This Rock program associate for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC poetry and art festival. She was also the producer and host of the radio show Conversations with Arab Activists on WHPK 88.5 FM Chicago in 2006-2007.
Eugenia Kim’s debut novel, The Calligrapher’s Daughter, won the Borders Original Voices Award, was shortlisted for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a Washington Post Best Historical Novel and Critic’s Pick. Her second novel, The Kinship of Secrets, was a Library Reads pick, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month/Literature and Fiction. She teaches fiction and nonfiction at Fairfield University’s MFA Creative Writing Program.
Ofelia Montelongo is a bilingual writer from Mexico. She received a BA in accounting and finance, an MBA, and a BA in English and Creative Writing. She has a MA in Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Maryland. Her work has been published in Latino Book Review, Los Acentos Review, Rio Grande Review, and elsewhere. She was the 2019 Writer’s Center Undiscovered Voices Fellow. She currently teaches at the University of Maryland and was a PEN/Faulkner writer in residence in Washington, D.C. In 2021, she was named one of the PEN America Emerging Voices Fellows. ofeliamontelongo.com
Lorena Ortiz is a Mexican-America writer and 2021 Compass Fellowship finalist. Her debut short story Augustine’s Mother was published as a podcast on PenDust Radio. When she is not working at her day job as a health care policy data analyst, she is busy writing short stories and working on a novel. In addition to taking craft classes and workshops, she is part of a writing group that meets five days a week. Her dream is to retire from the world of numbers and live wholly in the world of words
Julia Tagliere’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Writer, Potomac Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Washington Independent Review of Books, and numerous anthologies. Winner of the 2015 William Faulkner Literary Competition for Best Short Story, the 2017 Writer’s Center Undiscovered Voices Fellowship, and the 2021 Nancy Zafris Short Story Fellowship, Julia completed her MA in Writing at Johns Hopkins University and serves as an editor with The Baltimore Review. She is currently working on her first story collection, Reliance, and and host live, bimonthly literary readings through the MoCo Underground Reading Series. Follow her at justscribbling.com.