From Isolation to Ecosystem: How to Be Seen, Supported & Sustained, Sponsored by MacDowell & the Black List

Friday, March 6, 12:10 p.m. to 1:25 p.m. ET

Ballroom I, Baltimore Convention Center, Level 400

Artists often work alone, but no one builds a career all by themselves. This panel explores the platforms, tools, and communities that artists can use to develop a sustainable and connected artistic ecosystem for themselves before and after being published, such as the Black List and MacDowell. Hear from prominent writers and users of these tools as well as leaders at these organizations on how to navigate essential support for your career at every stage of your writing life.

Panelist Bios:

Chiwoniso Kaitano is a champion of artists everywhere and joined MacDowell in 2023 to oversee the creative mission as well as the financial well-being of the nation’s first multidisciplinary residency program. She also serves on the board of directors of three New York City–based nonprofits: the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Center for Fiction, and the Jazz Leaders Fellowship of Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Originally from Zimbabwe, Kaitano lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, the political theorist Andrew Sabl, and their children.


Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. An Out100 honoree, she has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction, and appears in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, and ZORA. She is cohost of the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Nichols






Jason Reynolds is the number one New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books for children and young adults. A 2024 MacArthur fellow, Reynolds is best known for his novels All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely), the Track series, and Long Way Down, which received Newbery, Printz, and Coretta Scott King Honors. Among his many accolades, Reynolds was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2020–2022. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program, and lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Photo Credit: Adedayo "Dayo" Kosoko




D. Watkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, Black Boy Smile, and other books. We Speak for Ourselves was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection. His awards include the James Beard Media Award, Gordon Park Fellowship, and Pratt Library Hackerman Writer Fellowship. He writes for the HBO miniseries We Own This City, hosts the show’s podcast, and was in the documentary The Slow Hustle. His work is in The New York Times, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and others. Watkins is a professor at the University of Baltimore, where he earned a BA in history and MFA in creative writing. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter.

Photo Credit: Devin Allen

Randy Winston is the creative director of Fiction at the Black List, host and executive producer of Read the Acknowledgments, and former director of Writing Programs at the Center for Fiction. A 2016 graduate of the New School’s MFA program (fiction), he has served as fiction editor of Slice Literary Magazine and has appeared in Variety, The Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Publishers Weekly, The New York Times, and others. His interviews have included New York Times bestselling authors, National Book Award and Pulitzer honorees, NBCC recipients, and Hugo Award nominees. Winston is currently at work on his first novel. A former Orion Magazine trustee, he serves on the WriteOn NYC board and lives in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit: John Ricard