No application fee. No retreat cost. A week of intensive poetry workshops at a university campus in Pennsylvania with some of the most respected voices in contemporary Black poetry.
The Cave Canem Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2027 Fellowship. The deadline is 6 October 2026. The retreat runs from 6 to 13 June 2027 at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.
For Black poets looking for a serious literary community, this is one of the most significant opportunities available this year.
What Cave Canem Is
Founded to nurture the artistic development of Black poets, Cave Canem has built one of the most respected literary communities in the United States over several decades.
The annual retreat is the heart of the program. Fellows spend a week in intensive workshops, readings and conversations with faculty who are themselves established poets. It is not a passive experience. The work is close. The feedback is direct. The connections formed tend to last well beyond the retreat itself.
Poetry represented within the Cave Canem community spans blues, confessional, experimental, dramatic, lyric narrative performance and political traditions. The breadth is deliberate. Poets from very different literary backgrounds sit in the same workshops. This tends to produce the kind of creative friction that makes the week genuinely useful.
What Fellows Receive
Selection as a Cave Canem Fellow carries benefits that extend well past the June retreat.
The fellowship includes:
- Invitation to the 2027 Annual Retreat fully funded
- Intensive poetry workshops and readings with faculty
- Access to the Fellows and Faculty Fund
- Exclusive scholarships for selected writing residencies
- Archival training
- Participation in public programming, readings, panels and multidisciplinary collaborations
- Subscription to a bimonthly Cave Canem resource featuring community news and exclusive opportunities
- Entry into an ongoing network of poets, faculty and literary professionals
The network dimension is worth taking seriously. Cave Canem alumni include poets who have gone on to win major literary prizes, hold faculty positions at universities and shape the direction of contemporary American poetry. Becoming a fellow means joining that community permanently not just for a week.
Who Can Apply
The fellowship is open to Black poets who will be at least 21 years old by 6 June 2027, the first day of the retreat.
One application per candidate. No exceptions.
How to Apply
Applications are submitted through Submittable and consist of two components. A cover letter and a poetry writing sample.
The writing sample requirements are specific. Submissions that do not follow them may be disqualified. This is a practical reality worth taking seriously before you upload anything.
Your poetry submission must:
- Be a PDF containing six pages of poems
- Be written in English
- Contain no identifying information. Your name must not appear anywhere on the poetry attachment
- Begin each poem on a new page separated by page breaks
- Format each poem’s title in bold
- Include page numbers in the footer, for example Page 2 of 6
- Use a legible 12 point serif font throughout
Apply for Cave Canem Fellowship
Choosing and Preparing Your Six Pages
Six pages is not much space. Every poem should earn its place.
Select work that represents your strongest and most distinctive writing. Poems that demonstrate a clear voice, deliberate craft and a genuine engagement with language and form. This is not the place for work you are still uncertain about.
The cover letter should do something different from the poems. Use it to communicate your relationship to poetry, your artistic goals and why the Cave Canem community specifically matters to your development as a writer.
Panels read many cover letters. The ones that feel specific to this fellowship are different from the ones that could have been sent anywhere.