Poet and Writing Seminars alum Dolapo Demuren (BA ’15) is one of two winners of the 2025 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. His winning manuscript, American Love Sonnets, was selected by Monica Ferrell and will be published as a chapbook by the PSA in 2026. The Poetry Society of America is the nation’s oldest poetry organization, and their chapbook program has published the work of new voices since 2003, including chapbooks by William Brewer, Esther Lin, Emily Lee Luan, Dawn Lundy Martin, Camille Rankine, Max Ritvo, and Writing Seminars alumni Cecily Parks and Callie Siskel.

Dolapo Demuren (he/him) is a Nigerian-American writer and educator from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. He received his B.A. in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University, M.F.A from Columbia University and Ed.D from the University of Southern California. His honors include a fellowship from the Cave Canem Foundation and The Academy for Teachers, as well as scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and nominations for the Pushcart Prize. His poems and other writings are featured or forthcoming in the Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, Prelude Magazine, On the Seawall, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland College Park, where he is currently the associate director of the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House.