Announcing the 2025 Poets & Writers Get the Word Out Fiction Cohort

Poets & Writers has announced the 2025 fiction cohort for Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for early career writers. The program gives selected writers an opportunity to work with an experienced book publicist who will guide them in leveraging the opportunity presented by their first or second major book publication.

Each of the nine writers selected has a book forthcoming in 2025 or 2026. They are pictured from top left:

• Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, Names Have Been Changed (Tiny Reparations Books)
• Roohi Choudhry, Outside Women (University of Kentucky Press)
• Kerry Donoghue, Mouth (Unsolicited Press)
• Lacey N. Dunham, The Belles (Atria Books)
• Shasta Grant, When We Were Feral (Regal House)
• Laura Venita Green, Strays (Unnamed Press)
• Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls (Catapult) 
• Miranda Schmidt, Leafskin (Stillhouse Press)
• Daniel Tam-Claiborne, Transplants (Regalo Press)

The publicity mentor who will lead this cohort is Jennifer Huang. Jennifer is a freelance publicist at Cento Lit, a farmer on the Oregon Coast, and the author of Return Flight. Previously a publicist at Riverhead Books and The Shipman Agency, they were the co-publicist for R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries, Kamala Shamsie’s Home Fire, Juli Berwald’s Spineless, and Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream, and assisted in publicity efforts for books by Paula Hawkins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brit Bennet, and Junot Diaz. Jennifer enjoys working with authors and books that don’t neatly fit into one box and helping authors “do” publicity in a way that feels true to themselves. In their spare time, Jennifer enjoys walking wherever they can, eating popsicles, and learning new crafts.

Get the Word Out participants will work closely with Jennifer over several months to learn, develop, and execute strategies that will help them maximize the exposure of their forthcoming poetry collections. They will also take part in seminars with media and events professionals, as well as established authors who will speak to their own experience and strategies for book promotion. 

Applications for the 2025 poetry cohort for Get the Word Out are currently open through December 31, 2024. Learn more about the program at Poets & Writers.