The Straw Dog Writers Guild Emerging Writer Fellowship Working Judging Panel is responsible for going through applications and selecting the shortlist and final recipient of the fellowship.
The 2022 judging panel was as follows.
Fungai Tichawangana
Fungai Tichawangana is the founder and managing editor of Valley of Writers, a platform which shares resources, opportunities, and ideas with writers. In 2015, he was awarded a Nieman Journalism Fellowship and a Berkman-Klein Fellowship for Journalism Innovation at Harvard based on work he had done documenting arts and culture in Zimbabwe. He is passionate about the intersection of technology and the arts and is constantly working on ways to light one up with the other. He is based in Amherst MA.
Aqueela C. Britt
Aqueela C. Britt published her first novel, London Reign, under the pseudonym, A.C. Britt in 2007. She writes raw, matter-of-fact stories about LGBTQ identified black and brown kids trying to live their best lives. She obtained her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University (2018) and has penned several works of short and long fiction, poetry and essays. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from Columbia College, South Carolina and a Master of Social Work from Simmons University (formerly Simmons College).
Kaija Langley
Kaija Langley was born and raised in Northern N.J. and currently resides in Cambridge, MA. Her debut picture book, When Langston Dances, received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly and has been nominated for a 53rd NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Literary Work for Children category. When she isn’t raising money for local non-profits, she reads and writes picture books and novels for young readers. Her debut middle grade novel in verse, The Order of Things, is forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books in May 2023.