We’re thrilled to announce the next fellows for our Writer’s Residency in Downtown Las Vegas. We welcome our fellows Jean Kyoung Frazier, Kiara Gomez, Adrian L. Jawort, and Jerome A. Parker.
Fellows will spend a month in the vibrant heart of downtown Las Vegas, engaging with and becoming a part of the city’s thriving arts scene. The fellowship is designed to give talented writers and other creatives the space, time, and freedom to work on their longform projects, and the bibliophilic joy of living in a fully furnished apartment next to Las Vegas’ literary hub, The Writer’s Block bookstore.
Our apartment is in The Lucy, which also houses the Writer's Block. The Lucy is Beverly Rogers’ multi-use artist residency and complex, dedicated to fostering a creative community in Las Vegas.
Special thanks again to Nevada Humanities, UNLV, and private donors for helping bring these fellowships to life.
JEAN KYOUNG FRAZIER - OCTOBER 2022
Jean Kyoung Frazier lives in Brooklyn. Pizza Girl was her debut novel. She also writes for television.
About her project: My second novel. It's a stoner tragedy and part of it takes place in Las Vegas.
KIARA GOMEZ - OCTOBER 2022
Kiara Gomez is a recent Harvard College graduate with a degree in Social Anthropology and Government. Kiara has been writing speculative fiction since she can remember and has recently begun screenwriting. When she’s not reading, writing, or watching stories, she can be found admiring multimillion-dollar homes on Zillow or enjoying Southern California’s perennial good weather at the beach.
About her project: I will be drafting a Young Adult fantasy novel, which mythologizes family stories from Mexico and my own experiences growing up in the United States.
ADRIAN L. JAWORT - NOVEMBER 2022
Adrian L. Jawort is a Northern Cheyenne fiction writer and journalist based in Billings, Montana. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, and Indian Country Today. She is the author of Moonrise Falling, a horror novel, and the editor of and contributor to Off the Path volumes I and II, a fiction anthology featuring indigenous writers from around the globe. She has a collection of short stories called In the Shadow of Custer and is currently completing her novel based on her experiences of being transgender in a red state.
About her project: I will completing my novel based on my experiences of coming out as an Indigenous transgender woman in a red state. It is a very deep psychological dive on something I've never seen really addressed in the way I am doing.
JEROME A. PARKER - DECEMBER 2022
Jerome A. Parker is a published writer for the stage and screen with a focus on musical theater as a composer, lyricist, and librettist. From New York City, his works champion black and brown heroes as they wrestle through the baggage of their histories. Highlighted works for the stage and screen include BLISS: A SOLDIER'S TALE (Public Theater); LIKE JOHNNY IN THE DARK (Dramatist Guild); KAYA: TASTE OF PARADISE (New York Film Academy); and BLACK QUEEN SCREEN TESTS (The Tank NYC).
Currently, as a collaborative librettist with Experiments in Opera NY, his commissioned pieces in the epic, episodic EVERYTHING FOR DAWN, are now streaming on PBS AllARTS. And the EP recording of STRANGE FELLOWE: LOVE, his collaboration with composers Nick DePinna and Hitomi Oba, featuring Grammy Winner Kristolyn Lloyd, will be available across all music streaming platforms in 2023. As a dramaturg he's developing 2 new musicals: EllaRose Chary and Brandon J. Gwinn's QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME., and CATARACT HOUSE with The Becton International Black Theater and Arts.
An alumnus of Williams College (BA Theatre), The Juilliard School (Production/Costumes), UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television and New Media (MFA Playwriting), the Public Theater’s EWG; and his fellowships include the Dramatist Guild, MacDowell, American Lyric Theater, New York Stage and Film, Freedom Train Productions, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Writers Guild of America East.
About his project: Currently he's developing his opera trilogy FREIDA, as librettist and composer. Originally commissioned by Intiman Theater, FREIDA has been developed through fellowships, readings and workshops at New York Stage and Film, MacDowell, Dramatist Guild, National Black Theater, and the Obsidian Theater Festival (recently featured in American Theatre Magazine). FREIDA tells the story of a young girl, Freida, whose father is murdered by a police officer in front of her eyes and the revenge seeking woman she becomes as a result. Taking place between 1989 and 2015, in the fictional, small city of Homestead, CT, FREIDA's lens explores race relations and police militarization in urban areas as well as Black Rage. While in residence with Plympton, Jerome will compose the third and final part, FREIDA: BLACK, solidifying a libretto which plunges our heroine into a spiritual realm with the dead.