Discipline/Field: Fiction

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

About: Stefani Cox is an MFA candidate at UC Riverside who originally hails from Northern California. Her work explores Black womanhood, environmental issues, mental health, and belonging, usually through a speculative lens. She has experience as an editor and an instructor, and also holds a masters in urban planning from UC Berkeley.

Project Title: I Will Make the Wilderness imagines a near-future Sacramento, California under dire water scarcity. As a new spiritual movement rises and systemic inequalities are challenged, a Black woman navigates her allegiances and a shifting sense of identity. Ultimately, the novel asks who we become, both as a society and as individuals, when living through environmental trauma? Where do we belong when our experience of home is under threat?

Relevant Links: Website: stefanicox.com, Twitter: @stefanicox