Heartland Journalism Residency Fellowship & Fellowship Application

This fellowship is designed to support the development of student writers, undergraduate and graduate, who are interested in various topics and projects of their own choosing. We encourage projects focused on any engaging or compelling aspect of the city and county of St. Louis, the state of Missouri, or the larger bi-state region of Missouri and Illinois. Fellows are required to complete the project that would produce at least one piece of long-form journalism (2,500-to-3,000 words) and several related blog posts. The pieces would initially appear in The Common Reader but would also be available for use by other university outlets. The fellows would be supervised by Gerald Early, Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the Departments of English and African and African American Studies, supported by Ben Fulton, managing editor of The Common Reader. They would also have the opportunity to interact with staff writers Jeannette Cooperman, veteran St. Louis journalist, and John Griswold, creative long-form essayist. We will offer one undergraduate fellowship of $6,000 for the academic year and one graduate fellowship worth $8,000. Both Fellows are expected to produce a minimum of 5,500 words each over the course of the academic year.

The fellowships are open to all fully matriculated Washington University students in good academic standing in a degree-granting program who are currently in residence in St. Louis. We encourage first-generation and students from low-income families to apply. The fellow must be in residence in St. Louis for the term of the fellowship. All candidates will be interviewed by a special selection committee that will include representatives from The Common Reader and relevant faculty.