Introducing the 2025 Fine Arts Work Center Scholarship Recipients

This summer, six Boston-based poets and writers are spending a transformative week in Provincetown honing their craft, supported by a scholarship from the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the Fine Arts Work Center.

Each summer, the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown, MA hosts intensive workshops taught by award-winning artists and writers who are leaders in their disciplines. Through focused time, expert guidance, and inspiring community, attendees gather the tools they need to advance their creative work.

We partnered with the Fine Arts Work Center to ensure that writers in Boston would have an opportunity to participate in these workshops by offering scholarships to six emerging Boston-based writers. These scholarships cover tuition, lodging, and a stipend for travel and food.

You can learn more about the work of these talented writers at their websites listed below.

Meet This Year’s Recipients

Dana Alsamsam is a first-generation Syrian-American language and movement artist who is currently based in Boston. Her work has been supported by fellowships and scholarships from Emerson College, Lambda Literary, Breadloaf Writers Conference, and Somerville Arts Council. Her poems are published or forthcoming in The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, North American Review, Mizna, The Common, and others. Find more of her work at her website.

 

Prema Bangera (she/they) is a neurodivergent, queer, immigrant of color, and a multidisciplinary artist, a community organizer, a cultural worker, a disruptor, an educator, and an editor. Her writing and artwork has appeared in various publications and showcased at the Boston City Hall and was a part of the Raining Project at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Bangera is the founder of a grassroots consulting and nonprofit arts organization called BIPoC Ancestral Love as Arts (BALA) aimed to uplift QTDBIPoC community members. Find more of their work on their website.

 

Mollie O’Leary is a poet from Massachusetts. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Mollie’s chapbook The Forgetting Curve was selected for publication in 2023 through Poetry Online’s chapbook contest. Her poetry has appeared in McNeese Review, Chestnut Review, wildness and elsewhere. Find more of her work on her website.

 

Oisín Rowe (they/them) was born in Belfast, Ireland and raised in Boston, MA. They are a trans and disabled writer, editor, and poet. Their poems or reviews have appeared in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Massachusetts Review, WBUR, and elsewhere. Find more of their work on their website.

 

Annaka Saari is a writer from Michigan. She received her MFA from Boston University's Creative Writing Program in 2021 and now serves as the program's administrative coordinator. Her work has been published by The Southern Review, Pleiades, The Missouri Review, The Maine Review, Image, Cleveland Review of Books, and other publications. Find more of her work on her website.

 

Alli Tervo is a multidisciplinary poet and artivist. Her poetry has been featured by GBH Media, displayed at Boston City Hall, and published in Palette Poetry, the Yellow Arrow Journal, and elsewhere. She believes that language is a radical method of love and healing and is deeply inspired by the artists around her. Keep up with her work on instagram.