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Three local writers will receive what are considered to be among the largest no-strings-attached grants available to authors in the United States. Afua Ansong, Gina Rodríguez-Drix and Seth Tourjee will receive $30,000 grants from the Rhode Island Foundation’s Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund. They were chosen from a pool of 189 applicants.

The Fellowships are intended to enable writers to concentrate time on the creative process, focus on personal or professional development, expand their body of work and explore new directions.

“By giving these writers the financial freedom to advance their craft, we invest in their future and in a sector that creates the connections that bring us together as neighbors and a community,” said David. N. Cicilline.

The MacColl Johnson Fellowship program complements the Foundation’s “Civic and Cultural Life” Community Priority. It is just one example of the Foundation’s grant-making programs that are topic- or geography-specific such as the Program for Animal Welfare and the Newport County Fund.

A native of Ghana, Ansong moved the United States at age 12. She began writing poetry by recording memories of her native land and her new home in the states.

“I began to write remaining memories of Accra, especially of my grandmother and the garden she taught me to tend. I began to write longer manuscripts in which I spoke about the tension between loss and preservation, the way immigrant identities are constantly remade, and how memory can serve as both a comfort and a challenge,” said Ansong.

Her current full-length manuscript, “I Buried [Her] in the Field of Lemongrass,” was a finalist for the 2024 Levis Prize, Wisconsin Poetry Series, Philip Levine Prize, CAAPP, Autumn House Rising Writer Prize and the 2023 National Poetry Series. The work explores the ceremonies of death and rebirth for African immigrant women who have redefined their identities as Black women in the United States.

“My work amplifies voices from under-represented communities and uses poetry to connect contemporary artistic expression with traditional cultural practices. It also sheds light on the enduring cultural impact of African practices and artistic forms on the survival of African immigrants, particularly in North America,” she explained.

Ansong will use the Fellowship to focus on completing a full draft of her manuscript, “Adinkra: Farewell,” a novel in verse, during the 2025-2026 academic year. The work explores the spiritual identity and faith of generations of Africans who migrated to the United States. Additionally, she plans to offer in-person and virtual poetry workshops through Adinkra Projects in Accra, Ghana, while also investing in equipment essential for her revision process.

“I see my poems as an archive of the lived experiences of immigrants, particularly African women, who navigate evolving identities in the United States. The Fellowship will enable me to prioritize my art—a gesture toward my process of survival and a chance to pursue my passion for writing more fully,” said Ansong. “This opportunity is vital to my development as a poet and to my mission of using art to explore, preserve and amplify the stories and experiences of those within the African Diaspora.”

Ansong is an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She earned a Ph.D. in English and an MBA at URI and an MFA at Stony Brook University.

Rodríguez-Drix is a writer whose art focuses on ancestry and the resilience found in families separated by sea, sanctions and ideology.

The daughter of a Cuban refugee, Rodríguez-Drix has traveled to Cuba several times to connect with her family, even accompanying her father on his return after 40 years in exile in the states.

“Ultimately, I find myself writing in order to rediscover what was lost, what was taken and what can be reimagined in the gaps in our understanding of one another. There is magic in our interconnectedness, despite our linguistic and cultural barriers, the harsh realities of sanctions, and the way governmental decisions play out within our relationships. Laws integrate into our phone calls and letters and birthdays,” she said.

Rodríguez-Drix is writing a novel, choosing fiction to explore her family’s experience of the Mariel boatlift, which brought her father to the United States in 1980.

“I write about the ways in which this specific Cuban refugee community has struggled to reconnect with their relatives and roots,” she explained.

The Fellowship will enable Rodríguez-Drix to travel to research her novel, including visits to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, various archives, and writers conferences. In addition, she says the Fellowship will support her writing with the gift of time.

“I have diligently worked on this passion project for years,” said Rodríguez-Drix. “This is a catalytic opportunity, as it will support me to carve time and space for writing and research, and to complete this story that will not let me go.”

Rodríguez-Drix is a Providence-based arts administrator whose career spans the nonprofit cultural sector, public service and higher education. She earned a BA in Africana Studies at Brown.

Tourjee is a writer and artist based in Providence. Their work includes “Sam Says, Sam,” a book of poetry; and three chapbooks: “Ghost,” “When Tongue Was Muscle” and “Record Of.”

“Writing has always been my deepest method of engagement and connection to the world around me. It is the way to give language and memory to the daily textures of the banal and profound that otherwise pass through us,” said Tourjee.

“I find the most resonance in experimental forms that push language's ability to tell stories of human experience, while also playing with the physicality of words themselves. Language is an extension of our body. It is our self in relation to others. I think a lot about the notion of coherency in literature and in our society– who and what is considered to ‘make sense’ enough to be read and heard. And how we can expand those thresholds within our experiences of art and the world around us,” they said.

Tourjee plans to use the Fellowship to continue their exploration of visual forms of poetry, create a new series of collage poems and complete a draft of an experimental young adult novel with the themes of disability and queerness at its heart. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a teenager, it has had a major influence on their art.

“Having a chronic illness has made my writing path feel winding or even fragmented over the years, but non-linearity has always been at the center of my work. This Fellowship will support me at an important time to create a meaningful new body of work,” said Tourjee.

Tourjee is a Content and Curriculum Consultant at Watson Creative Consulting, supporting the development of culturally responsive children’s content, curricula and storytelling. They previously served as Grants Manager at AS220 and as Co-Director of Frequency Writers. They earned an MFA in Literary Arts, Fiction at Brown University and a BA in English at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Ansong, Rodríguez-Drix and Tourjee were chosen by a panel of out-of-state jurors who are professional writers and editors. The recipients were selected based on the quality of the work samples, artistic development and the creative contribution to their genre, as well as the potential of the Fellowship to advance their careers as emerging-to-mid-career artists.

The selection panel also named three finalists: Russell Morse, Ruchika Nambiar and Lucia Retta, all of Providence. They will receive $1,000 stipends.

Applicants had to be legal residents of Rhode Island. High school students, college and graduate students who are enrolled in a degree-granting program and artists who have advanced levels of career achievement were not eligible.

Established in 2003, the MacColl Johnson Fellowships rotate among composers, writers and visual artists over a three-year cycle. The next round will be awarded to visual artists. The application will be available on the Foundation’s website after July 1.

Rhode Islanders Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson were both dedicated to the arts all their lives. Mrs. Johnson, who died in 1990, earned a degree in creative writing from Roger Williams College when she was 70. Mr. Johnson invented a new process for mixing metals in jewelry-making and then retired to become a full-time painter. Before he died in 1999, Johnson began discussions with the Foundation that led to the creation of the Fellowships.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Through civic leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, together with neighbors and partners, the Foundation is helping to create progress that lasts.