The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) is pleased to announce that fiction writer Christopher Gonzalez has been awarded the 2025 Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen LGBTQ+ Fellowship. This annual fellowship supports the residency of an LGBTQ+ writer working in any genre at VCCA’s artist retreat in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
Gonzalez is the author of the short story collection I’m Not Hungry but I Could Eat (SFWP, 2021) which a starred review in Publishers Weekly called “as poignant as it is hilarious.” His writing appears in Astra Magazine, Poets & Writers online and print, the Nation, Catapult, Best Microfictions, and Best Small Fictions, among other journals and anthologies. A graduate of Vassar College, he was the recipient of the 2015 Ann E. Imbrie Prize for Excellence in Fiction Writing. In 2021, he was awarded an NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship for fiction.
Gonzalez is at work on mapping out a second story collection as well as drafting a novel. He plans to spend his upcoming time as a VCCA Fellow at Mt. San Angelo — his very first writing residency — dedicated primarily to the novel, a work concerned with queer relationships, both romantic and platonic, at this current moment in U.S. history.
“It’s about gay panic but also gay intentionality,” says Gonzalez. “What kind of moves are we making for protection and self-preservation? What does planning for a future look like when the present is so incredibly bleak? I think the novel is the right form to explore these questions and make discoveries.”
“We had a record number of entries the past year,” says Steven Petrow. “The committee was unanimous in its decision, noting in particular the power and versatility of Christopher’s writing. At this moment in time, we need courageous voices, like Christopher’s, to be seen and heard.”
Gonzalez is looking forward to having two weeks without any major obligations other than the writing itself.
“The daily grind of work and paying rent and high fees for health care and living under an increasingly authoritarian government who wishes to erase the very existence of queer and trans people, stifles the creative process, to say the least,” says Gonzalez. “I am hopeful that my time at VCCA and getting to know the other artists in residence will offer a chance to reset and reconnect with my creative self. And if I come out of it with a chunk of my manuscript in tow, that will be icing on the cake.”
Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen
Steven Petrow and his late sister, Julie Petrow-Cohen,, New York, coming out to each other in their teens. Steven is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on aging, health, and civility. He’s the author of multiple books, including Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old and The Joy You Make. He was the 2024 N.C. Piedmont Laureate.
Julie graduated from New York University and New York Law School, where she was on Law Review. She started her career as a litigator, moving on to a long and rewarding career in the securities industry. Julie used her knowledge of the law as a fierce advocate for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. She volunteered in the legal clinic of New York’s LGBT Center, as a legal advocate for homeless people in New York City, and was highly involved in the fight for marriage equality. Julie, 61, died from metastatic ovarian cancer in June 2023 and was the wife of Maddy Petrow-Cohen and mother to two daughters, Jessie and Caroline.
Established in 2016, the Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen LGBTQ+ Fellowship (renamed in 2023) is open to writers in any genre who self-identify as LGBTQ+. This juried fellowship is awarded on a competitive basis, and the selection is made based on the quality of the submitted work. The Petrow Family Fellowship provides a fully-funded, two-week residency at Mt. San Angelo, which includes a private bedroom with private bath, a separate individual studio, and three meals a day in a community of cross-disciplinary artists.
Previous winners include writers Jenn Shapland, Thomas Dai, Nicholas Boggs, Carter Sickels, Lydi Conklin, and Cris Beam.
The fellowship will next be available for VCCA’s Fall 2026 residency season at Mt. San Angelo in Virginia. Online applications are now open, with a deadline of January 15, 2026
Pictured above:
- Christopher Gonzalez headshot; Photo credit: Jonathan Pitts-Wiley
- Julie Petrow-Cohen and Steven Petrow; Photo credit: Frankie Alduino