Nigerian American author and journalist Itoro Bassey has been selected for the 2026 fiction cohort of Get the Word Out, Poets & Writers’ publicity incubator for early-career authors.

Bassey is one of ten writers selected for the program, which offers emerging authors practical guidance on building audiences and generating publicity around the publication of their first or second books. The 2026 cohort was announced by Poets & Writers on September 15.

Over the course of the twelve-week program, the fellows will work with writer and freelance publicist May-Zhee Lim to develop personalized publicity strategies for their forthcoming books. They will also participate in seminars with literary and publishing professionals, gaining practical tools and professional connections to carry into their careers. The program is offered at no cost to the writers or their publishers.

Launched in 2022, Get the Word Out was created to help early-career writers navigate the often opaque business of book publicity. The program seeks to reduce barriers for writers from historically marginalized communities, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers, writers based outside New York City, and authors whose books are published by independent presses.

Bassey’s work explores the tension between societal expectations and selfhood, particularly in the lives of African women and daughters. Her writing moves through questions of family, class, migration, race, and belonging, asking what becomes possible when women begin defining their lives for themselves.

Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, Callaloo, Brittle Paper, Prairie Schooner, and Hippocampus, among other publications. Her forthcoming story collection, Ajébutter Women, won the 2024 W.S. Porter Prize and will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2027, with an African edition forthcoming from Paperworth Books. Bassey is also a former BBC producer whose reporting and production work has covered global affairs and U.S. politics.

Bassey joins nine other writers in the 2026 cohort: Doris W. Cheng, whose debut novel Keep Your Enemies Close is forthcoming from Deep Vellum in 2027; Manola Gonzalez Rosillo, whose debut novel Gringas will be published by Bloomsbury in 2028; Sakinah Hofler, whose novel Stable is forthcoming from Henry Holt in 2027; Shelby Kinney-Lang, whose story collection SNAKE & SUBMARINE is forthcoming from Autumn House Press; Abby Manzella, whose collection Ripples into the Wild is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press; Daniel J. O’Malley, whose The Younger and Other Stories is forthcoming from Hub City Press; Andrea Ruggirello, whose debut novel The Memory Token is forthcoming from Harper Horizon; Jared Silvia, whose story collection Ways This Could Go is forthcoming from Burrow Press; and Rose Whitmore, whose debut novel Exiled will be published by Dzanc Books.

The cohort is mentored by May-Zhee Lim, a New York-based freelance publicist and writer who previously worked at Riverhead Books, where she helped launch debut authors and expand the readership of prize-winning writers including Hernan Diaz, Olga Tokarczuk, James McBride, and Sigrid Nunez. In 2021, Lim was named a Publishers Weekly Star Honoree for her inventive publicity campaigns, including a collaboration with a New York City bakery that printed a short story by Etgar Keret on its cake wrappers.

For Bassey, the fellowship comes as Ajébutter Women moves closer to publication, placing her among a group of emerging writers receiving dedicated support at a pivotal stage of their publishing careers.

Poets & Writers will begin accepting applications for the next cohort of early-career poets in January 2027.