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Apply for the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship
Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and Dr. Yosef Wosk are working together to fund the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship to mentor emerging writers of promise. We celebrate this partnership by renaming the program that was formerly known as the “VMI Fellowship” in honour of Dr. Wosk’s philanthropic support.
The Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship is for a writer of exceptional promise with a manuscript in progress, who has faced significant barriers to fulfilling that promise. This competitive Fellowship includes a full scholarship to the Six-Month Intensive 2024 program to work with one of our award-winning authors. While Canadian, U.S. and international applicants can apply, communication and work will be in English. The successful Fellow will be featured at the program’s graduation reading in June 2024 and may be interviewed for publication on VMI’s website and in literary journals.
- Application deadline: November 9, 2023
- Notifications: November 30, 2023
- Tuition amount: WAIVED
- Course dates: January 2024—July 2024. An orientation for the group on Zoom will take place in the first week of January. The mentor and Fellow will decide together on a date to begin their work.
- The Fellow may be mentored by any one of our active mentors and may apply with work in any genre. Mentor pairing is determined by several factors, including mentor availability, enthusiasm for the proposed project, and VMI’s careful assessment of the best match.
Hear from Inaugural VMI Fellow Pervin Saket about her experience:
Vancouver Manuscript Intensive is grateful to Dr. Wosk for his support and is excited to be working with him in this capacity in the literary community.
Yosef Wosk is an Adjunct Professor in Humanities, a Simons Fellow, a Shadbolt Fellow, and former Director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University where he developed seminal programs such as The Philosophers’ Café and The Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars. In addition to being an ordained rabbi and receiving two honorary doctorates, he holds Ph.D.s in Religion & Literature as well as in Psychology, and Masters degrees in Education and Theology. As a businessman, he is president of Binyan and Kolbo Holdings. Widely travelled—including expeditions to both the North and South Poles—Dr. Yosef Wosk is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. An active media commentator, public speaker and published author, he has founded hundreds of libraries on all seven continents and supported museums in many countries, has endowed Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, and has taught thousands of students over the past fifty years. Identified as one of the top ten thinkers and most thoughtful citizens in the province, Dr. Wosk is included in Canadian Who’s Who and has been presented with numerous awards including The Order of Canada, The Order of British Columbia, The Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and a Culture Beyond Borders Medal from the United Nations. In May 2022 he received the Freedom of the City Award, Vancouver’s highest civic honour.
VMI Fellows
2021 Pervin Saket
2022 Olajide Salawu, Brandon Wint
Yosef Wosk VMI Fellows
2023 Shantell Powell
For more information or to support the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship with a donation, please click here.
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