The Charleston Literary Festival
Cato Fellowship application is
NOW OPEN.

Application Deadline: August 25, 2025

The Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize supports and nurtures emerging voices. From November 7 - 16, 2025, two selected writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry will have the opportunity to experience the transformative power of books, ideas, and conversation, hearing from over 50 nationally and internationally renowned authors and interlocutors.

Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize winners will receive full access to Charleston Literary Festival’s sessions and receptions, free accommodations in Downtown Charleston, networking and collaborative opportunities beyond the Festival, and a stipendiary of $7,500 to allow them to further their writing career as they see fit.

“To be able to touch another person with your selection of words is a rare gift. It is a bold and brave endeavor, oftentimes revealing far more about the writer than of the subject matter. Very few are blessed with this gift, this willingness to expose oneself, to be judged. With the establishment of a fellow program as part of Charleston Literary Festival, we thrive to nurture the yearning of a few select individuals to continue to share their creativity with all of us in our lifelong adventure in learning about the world around us and, most importantly, ourselves in the process. It is my hope that in creating this program, I can honor my late husband Wayland H. Cato Jr., who was a passionate reader his entire life.”

Marion Cato,

Philanthropist and Author

  • The Prize offers the opportunity to meet face-to-face with distinguished authors and leaders in their respective fields and learn about both the business of writing and the inner workings of an international literary festival.

    Wayland H. Cato Jr. had a lifelong passion for reading and learning. At the age of 100, he continued his daily discipline of devouring books (and newspapers) stacked high by his chair. Even in his last days, Mr. Cato discussed what he was reading: physics, politics, agriculture, history, philosophy, and more. He enriched his and Mrs. Cato’s life with wider views and deeper understanding. The Catos came to believe that the world would be a better place if exceptional young writers were nurtured and encouraged.

    Charleston Literary Festival is on a mission to bring diverse, national, and international authors and audiences together to experience the transformative power of great literature, ideas, and creativity. The CLF Cato Fellowship Prize reflects the importance of literature and the urgency to support it and foster the next generation of writers. The Prize exists to nurture and encourage exceptional emerging writers so that they may positively impact and transform the world around them.

What You Can Expect from The Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize

The Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize will be awarded to two writers of fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry who demonstrate a commitment to bettering their craft and exhibit a love of writing and reading.

The Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize will provide:

  • immersive access to all 35+ events and private receptions during Charleston Literary Festival, running November 7 - 16, 2025

  • accommodations in Downtown Charleston to stay and write for the 10-day duration of the Festival

  • a $7,500 stipendiary

  • a dedicated workspace in Dock Street Theatre

  • featured bio on the Charleston Literary Festival website and social media

  • a featured reading during Charleston Literary Festival

  • publication of the final piece in response to Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship experience on the Charleston Literary Festival website

  • networking and collaborative opportunities beyond the duration of the Festival

Who Should Apply

The Fellowship Prize is open to any fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry writer who is a current resident of North Carolina or South Carolina. Students enrolled in a college or university program in North Carolina or South Carolina are also eligible to apply. Applicants are required to be a U.S. citizen or resident with an active visa and at least 21 years old on November 7, 2025. 

Applicants should be in the early stages of their writing careers, i.e. have not published more than one book-length work with a major or independent publisher. However, previous publication is not a requirement if they have demonstrated a commitment to developing their writing, whether fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, by providing evidence of, for example:

  • work published in a magazine, online or print

  • work published in an anthology

  • attendance at a creative writing course

  • an early stage of a manuscript

  • a draft book proposal

To apply, please visit https://charlestonliteraryfestival.slideroom.com/.

The application asks for responses to three short answer questions and a work sample. We will accept submissions from July 7, 2025 to August 25, 2025. 

2024 Cato Fellows

  • Latria Graham

    Latria Graham is a magazine feature writer from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, LA Times, The Guardian, espnW, Southern Living, and The Atlantic. She is the ethical travel columnist for Afar Magazine, as well as the writer behind Garden & Gun's “This Land” column, which uses time, place, and memory to document and investigate the lesser known or rapidly disappearing aspects of the natural world in the South. An Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in Augusta University’s English and World Languages department, she is also an instructor in the University of Georgia's Narrative Nonfiction MFA program housed in the Grady College of Mass Communication & Journalism. 

    “Being one of the inaugural fellows is a remarkable honor because I’ve used the written word as my means of expression, and I can trace my lineage back to the coast of South Carolina, a place where for generations my Black ancestors were forbidden by law from learning to read or write. So to be recognized in this way, for bringing vulnerability and my emotional truth to the page is no small thing. The talent that comes to this festival is exceptional and I’m excited to learn more about craft and enhance the caliber of my creativity.”

  • Dasia Moore

    Dasia Moore is a poet, journalist, and queer child of the Black South. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including The Offing, Fence, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and The Boston Globe, where she was a magazine staff writer. Dasia holds her MFA in creative writing from New York University, where she was a Lillian Vernon Fellow, and a BA from Yale University. She is honored to be one of two inaugural Cato Fellowship recipients. Raised in her family homes of Charleston, SC and Reidsville, NC, Dasia now lives and writes in Durham.

    “To have my poetry recognized in the very city that made me a poet is a dream fulfilled. I write about loss across the Black Atlantic, including my own family’s loss of land and homes in Charleston. Thank you to the Charleston Literary Festival for believing in my work; it would be an understatement to say I am honored.”