Howdy! I’m Diamond Braxton, a writer, editor, and educator based in Central, Texas. I applied to the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop this year for short fiction and got in to study with a writer I greatly admire, Denne Michele Norris!!! With only less than 10% of applicants (1400 total applicants) accepted, this is an opportunity I cannot pass up (especially since I'm nearly finished with my collection of short stories). Unfortunately, I didn’t get the scholarship which pays for the tuition of the workshop, which is where I'm hoping my community, friends, and family can help me get to Tin House this year.

Why I Need Help Getting to Tin House

Tin House is a life-changing opportunity, especially for emerging writers. I’ll have the opportunity to work with one of my literary heroes, Denne Michele Norris, to further develop my short story collection set in Texas that explores the intersections of race, class, queerness, and belonging in marginalized households. There will be a total of ten stories, and each one will center on confronting Westernized teachings, such as the nuclear family, capitalism, and what happens when families are confronted with children that do not match the ideal Western ideal of what a child or a family should be. Being able to work with Denne Michelle Norris, who is a renowned queer writer of color, would be astronomical in terms of representation, ensuring my work is handled with care, and to study under someone I greatly admire.

I am currently pursuing my MFA at Texas State, which provides a small monthly stipend making it challenging to attend Retreats that are costly. However, with my collection of short stories being near completed, being able to attend Tin House could be instrumental for my career. The Retreat typically gives attendees access to agents to pitch their projects to, and I'm hoping through this opportunity I can leave the Retreat with an agent or at least several interested in learning more about my collection. To be able to attend Tin House would be an unmatched opportunity for the next steps in my career as an emerging author, and I would appreciate any and all help from my community to help me get there.

Costs Breakdown

I’m asking for the cost of the workshop:

Tuition: $1,600

Room & Board: $800

There are several payment deadlines with 1) $300 by March 31st; 2) $500 by May 15th; and 3) the rest ($1600) due by July 1st. It would be fantastic to try to reach each of these benchmarks before their due date, and I would appreciate any help my community, friends, and family can extend to me. Thank you for all of your help!

Learn About Me

You can learn more about me and my work on my website: www.diamondgizellebraxton.com. In addition to working on my first collection of stories, I'm currently in the MFA program at Texas State where I also work as an Instructor to bright, young minds. Uplifting diverse voices and storytelling is a central part of my core as I aim to do it in my creative work and in my work itself. I am the Founder and Director of Abode Press, a 501(c)3 anti-racist, intersectional publishing press that is focused on amplifying underrepresented voices in the U.S. with a focus on work that discusses home, identity, origin, culture. Through Abode, I have the wonderful opportunity to network, connect with, and uplift marginalized writers, publish their works, and help them navigate the world as emerging writers.

To be able to attend Tin House where I know I will be surrounded with like-minded creatives would be an opportunity I'd be forever grateful for, and I look forward to making connections, working on my collection, and probably singing karaoke at some point <3

Once Again, Thank You!

Thank you so much for reading this, and all of your time. I wouldn't be here at all without the generous support of my entire community—again, anything you can give helps. And if you can’t donate right now, please share!

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Diamond Braxton is a queer, mixed-race Black-Xicanx writer, editor, and educator based in Texas. Their work appears in Best Microfiction 2023, Sundress Publication's Best of the Net anthology, Foglifter, The Forge, Stanchion, Hellebore Press, ANMLY, and others. She is a Lambda Literary retreat fellow (2023) and a Tin House 21′ workshop alum. She is the Founder of a new intersectional, anti-racist publishing press called Abode Press, and she is working on her first collection of genre-bending short stories. Learn more at www.diamondgizellebraxton.com or @DiamondGBraxton on everything else.