Congratulations to Trelani Michelle, Winner of the 2026 Flavors of the South Fellowship

The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow is pleased to announce Trelani Michelle as the recipient of our inaugural Flavors of the South Fellowship, a new residency celebrating writers whose work explores the food, culture, and stories of the American South.

During her residency, Trelani will work on her forthcoming cookbook about Gullah Geechee foodways. Her project looks at dishes like red rice and okra perloo, along with traditions like rice cultivation and whole hog roasting, and how they connect to West African, Indigenous, and European influences in Southern cooking. She combines personal storytelling, oral history, and recipes to show how soul food has deep roots in local, seasonal ingredients.

Trelani Michelle is a writer, independent anthropologist, teaching artist, and daughter of Louisiana and Savannah whose work explores history and culture through food, art, and literature. Her approach to storytelling draws from oral history, archival research, and fieldwork.

She’s the author of Krak Teet: A Catalog of Black Savannah’s Biographies and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island with Emily Meggett. Her writing appears in Southern Living, Savannah Magazine, and a recurring column in IMPACT Magazine.

Trelani is also the founder of Krak Teet, an organization centered on intergenerational knowledge-sharing, and the creator of #WeAllCousins. Across her writing, research, and programs, she treats history not as a collection of fun facts, but as a roadmap that lives in our food, art, stories, and traditions and helps us make sense of where we are and where we’re going.

When she ain’t working, Trelani’s a devoted student of Zora Neale Hurston, a birder forever chasing moments of awe, and endlessly curious about the spirit and science behind good food.

Learn more at TrelaniMichelle.com.

Congratulations, Trelani — we can’t wait to welcome you to Dairy Hollow!