Center for Research & Cultural Preservation
Anaphora is pleased to announce the Center for Research and Cultural Preservation, a new hub of our organization that specializes in the collection and preservation of history, art, and culture indigenous to marginalized communities, with a particular focus on linguistics, and the preservation of oral traditions with the objective of archiving different languages, linguistic traditions, cultural heritages and not yet defined modes of storytelling that aim to preserve the stories of our communities.
The center seeks to work with different organizations operating in the field, including higher education institutions, local community centers, individual artists, writers, historians, and scholars.
For the 2023-24 season, Tamara J. Madison (Anaphora Fellow ’21) has been selected as the inaugural Senior Fellow to activate the center. The Senior Fellowship is awarded to an Anaphora Fellow whose creative or scholarly work is exceptional, and it is meant to bring more critical attention to their work.
Tamara is a poet, writer, editor and educator whose work is simply extraordinary. As the inaugural Senior Fellow, Tamara will receive 2,000 to help offset any expenses during her research. She will also receive support in publicity and marketing through our wide-reaching network and our in-house publicity efforts. Anaphora will also sponsor an evening of reading and conversation in Los Angeles (CA), where she’ll be the featured writer and scholar, to give her the platform to present her work to our community. We believe the archival work she’s been engaged with is instrumental to our communities, and we’re thrilled to be able to support her in this way.
Of the fellowship, Madison said, “I am deeply grateful to Anaphora Arts for this honor. As a result of my first residency and subsequent workshops with this organization and in this community, my writing has grown immensely. This gift motivates me to continue to do the work and nurture the craft of writing, a privilege that many of our ancestors did not have. Thank you, Anaphora Arts, for your relentless and generous commitment to uplift, inspire, inform, protect, and promote writers of color.”
Additionally, Atina Hartunian (Anaphora Fellow ‘18) and Miguel A. Vega (Anaphora Fellow ‘21) have been selected as the inaugural Teaching Fellows for 2023-24 cycle, in prose and poetry respectively. The Teaching Fellowship was established to provide additional opportunities and resources to Anaphora fellows who are entering the teaching workforce, or who are looking to bolster their teaching credentials.
Of the Teaching Fellowship, Hartunian said, “I am incredibly excited to be involved in this innovative new program at Anaphora Arts. Having previously been a residency student, Anaphora has provided me with numerous opportunities to develop my creative writing, offer a sense of community, and most importantly, provide a strong commitment to the success of each of their BIPOC fellows. Anaphora Arts has played a pivotal role in shaping the path of my creative writing career, guiding me closer to my aspirations.”
This year’s Teaching Fellows will start their tenure in August 2023. To learn more about this, and other new opportunities, contact us.
Fellows - 2023-24 Cycle
Tamara J. Madison - Senior Fellow
Poet, writer, editor, Tamara J. Madison, is the author of Threed, This Road Not Damascus (Trio House Press), Kentucky Curdled and Sistuh’s Sermon on the Mount (all poetry), and Collard County (fiction). Her writing is inspired by her ancestry and relations. She is the creator of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems, a YouTube conversation series promoting poets and their poetry as inspiration for everyday life. Tamara has also shared her poetry on the TEDx platform. She is a MFA graduate of New England College and an Anaphora Arts Fellow (2021). She currently teaches English and Creative Writing in central Florida and is working on a new full-length poetry collection, multimedia presentation, and workshop inspired by research from her family’s archives.
Atina Hartunian - Teaching Fellow (Prose)
Atina Hartunian is a first-generation Armenian-American creative writer with a passion for storytelling. She was the recipient of of scholarships and fellowships from Pacific University, Cambridge Writer’s Workshop, Anaphora Arts, and more. She is an avid community organizer, a fierce advocate for writers of color, and a prolific writer who is committed to exploring the human experience through her writing and is constantly seeking new ways to challenge herself creatively. She believes life is too short for crappy coffee. She is a native Los Angel-ian.
Miguel A. Vega - Teaching Fellow (Poetry)
Miguel A. Vega is a California based artist who holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in English Studies (Literature and Pedagogy) - both from California State University, San Bernardino. In 2021, Miguel was selected to participate in the Anaphora Arts Writer’s Summer Residency program and in 2022 he was a runner-up for Key West’s Scotti Russo Award as an emerging poet. He is currently working on his debut full-length collection of poetry.