The recipient of the 2026 Jones Fellowship is ire’ne lara silva.
Overview of the Fellowship
The Jesse H. Jones Fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters is aimed at working writers — emerging, mid-level, or restarting. A writer must demonstrate a commitment to the craft with some record of prior publishing and/or cite specific examples of workshops, mentor programs, or master classes that they have attended. The fellowship consists of a $10,000 award to fund the completion of a literary work of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction for a general audience, which the applicant will describe in detail. A writer may use the fellowship for housing, travel, research, marketing, or any other related cost that helps the writer complete the literary work. The fellowship is not intended for more successful, established writers who would not benefit markedly from the award.
Applying for the Fellowship
The application fee is $35. The next application period will be from October 1, 2026 to December 18, 2026. To receive notification via email when the application form is available, please join our mailing list.
Eligibility:
For a project to be eligible for the Jones Fellowship, either its writer must have lived in Texas for at least five consecutive years at some point as of the time of application, or the work’s subject matter must substantially concern Texas. Previous recipients of the Jones or Dobie-Paisano Fellowships are not eligible to apply. All other inducted members of the TIL are eligible to apply.
The Application:
- A writing sample from the proposed project that best helps judges evaluate the quality and content of the writing. Please limit the sample to no more than fifty manuscript pages for prose and thirty pages for poetry. The format for the writing sample must follow industry standards.
- A clear and concise description (up to 1,000 words) of what the applicant plans to work on during the fellowship. Applicants must answer these questions:
a. What are you working on? Tell us the genre (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc.).
b. At what stage is the project (planning, partial, completed first draft, etc.)?
c. Why is your project important or necessary? - A list (up to 500 words) of the applicant’s publications and literary awards, and a list (up to 500 words) of any workshops and/or writing programs attended.
- An explanation (up to 1,000 words) of how this award will help in the development of the writer’s career.
The 2027 recipient of the Jones Fellowship will be honored at the TIL’s annual awards banquet, to be held on May 1, 2027, in College Station, Texas.
