12. confluence Fellows Selected for 2025-26

Thank you to everyone who has joined our growing community. We have completed selections for our second Fellowship year, and are happy to announce the following poets as this year's Fellows:

• Anthony Q. Rabang, Philippines
• Colleen M. Farrelly, USA
• Cynthia Bale, Canada
• Deborah Karl-Brandt, Germany
• Margaret Walker, USA
• Sam Renda, South Africa
• Sophia Conway, Canada
• Vidya Premkumar, India

As we welcome this new cohort of Fellows—who represent a range of voices from six different countries (and three continents)—we are also introducing some new elements to the Fellowship. A series of renku sessions will allow for more collaborative writing among this diverse set of Fellows. We are also establishing a Council of senior poets to offer mentorship to the Fellows as well as guidance and support to the publication as a whole. We'll be exploring other new ideas as well, and we welcome your feedback in the comments section on how you would like to see confluence grow.

As Fellows did last year, this year's group will comment on one another’s work, beginning a conversation about each other's poems which we hope you will join. On each issue, we invite you to share your thoughts, and highlight what might have moved you, surprised you, or made you stop and think. You can visit the webpage for each issue and use the comment button at the bottom of the page to add your voice to the conversation.

Since confluence is still fairly new—just beginning our second year—we would greatly appreciate you spreading the word to anyone who you think might be interested as well as sharing about confluence on any social media you use. You can invite others to subscribe to the journal for free at confluencehaiku.com. We hope you'll help grow our confluence community, and to see you again towards the end of the month for our next issue!