Since Kundiman’s early days, the dream has been to offer a Retreat that’s free for all who attend. With your help, next year’s Kundiman Retreat can have no application or tuition fees.
In the next six weeks, we hope to raise enough to ensure that all application and tuition fees are covered. In honor of Kundiman’s 20th anniversary, this fee-free Retreat will help increase access to this landmark program that has deeply impacted so many AAPI writers. In the words of Ghinwa Jawhari, 2023 Kundiman fiction fellow and author of the chapbook BINT:
“You are told your whole life you are nothing. Then someone arrives and says, ‘No, You are everything.’ This is what I felt after my time at Kundiman this summer. Alongside our writing exercises was the implicit certainty that our voices were valuable. Worth amplifying. This kind of recognition is why Kundiman, and programs like it, are so incredibly vital and rare.”
“When I returned from the Retreat, I told my loved ones that after all of these years, I finally felt like a writer. It isn’t because of what I learned there, though I’d learned plenty. I felt like a writer because I finally felt empowered to create real, genuine work. I was not censoring myself. I was not afraid to give breath to the reality that existed inside me.”
Thank you for believing in this essential space where writers can be nurtured in all the multitudes they contain. Your support can help build an even more expansive Kundiman this upcoming year.