Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship

The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) is offering the 2025 Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship. This fellowship, now in its third year, will provide two unrestricted $5,000 awards to emerging writers of color who critically write about music. The fellowship supports and highlights voices from communities of color, encouraging them to bring their cultural and political perspectives into the field of arts criticism, with the goal of broadening cultural discourse and fostering a more inclusive approach to cultural criticism.

The Democracy Center at JANM focuses on educating people of all ages about democracy, fostering conversations around race and social justice, and exploring the Asian American experience in both historical and contemporary contexts. Each year, the Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship focuses on a different artistic discipline. For the 2025 cycle, the focus is music. Writing samples submitted for this year’s fellowship must be works of criticism or reviews specifically related to live or recorded music. The fellowship defines music as a creation primarily experienced as sound, meaning that reviews of music soundtracks, recordings of musical theater productions, or analyses of trends in the music industry are eligible, whereas broader cultural reviews are not.

Each of the two fellows selected will receive a $5,000 award to be spent over a six-month period, with flexibility to use the funds in any way that advances their careers, including paying themselves for writing time. Fellows will also have the opportunity to contribute a piece to the Democracy Center blog and deliver a public talk about their work at the Democracy Center. At the end of the fellowship, recipients must submit a brief letter reporting on how they used the funds; no formal receipts or documentation are required.

Applications must be submitted through JANM’s online portal. Required materials include a cover letter, résumé or CV, biography, and between one and three writing samples, totaling no more than 3,000 words. Writing samples must demonstrate the applicant’s investment in music criticism and should include details on where and when the pieces were published. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of professional music writers and editors who will select the final recipients.

The 2025 fellowship application opens on February 3, 2025, and closes on March 17, 2025. An optional virtual information session will be held on February 17, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. PST. Awardees will be notified by June 2, 2025. Questions can be directed to the Democracy Center at democracycenter@janm.org.