The Iowa Writers’ Room (IWR) at the University of Iowa, a program that prepares students for careers in television writing, is pleased to announce that Brandon J. Choi and Maya Sherwood have been selected as the 2026–2027 post-graduate fellows

The IWR fellowships will provide time and space for Brandon and Maya to work intensively on one or more scripts, develop ideas for future projects, and receive in-depth professional mentoring by a successful and experienced writer in the field. As fellows, they will also explore ways to navigate the business of writing for long-form television. Funding for this year’s fellowships is generously provided by the Meta and George Rosenberg Foundation.

Brandon J. Choi is a writer from California. His work can be found in Carve, Electric Literature, and BuzzFeed. He will graduate from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in May 2026. 

Maya Sherwood is from Philadelphia and lives in New York City. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022. She has been a James Patterson Scholar at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she will graduate in May 2026.

This unique fellowship has proven to be transformative for the writers it supports. Liv Kane (MFA, Nonfiction, 2025) says the fellowship has changed her life and helped propel her career forward. “I am beyond grateful for the journey this opportunity has taken me on,” says Kane. “The Iowa Writers’ Room Fellowship provided me the time and space to complete a pilot script and gave me the mentorship and preparation required for industry-level meetings with producers, showrunners, agents, and fellow television writers.” In fact, Kane recently signed with Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, and her work is now being submitted to writers’ rooms.

The IWR features three main components: a year-long program where students simulate a TV writers’ room and write pilot scripts, a week-long “Big Binge” with a visiting creator or showrunner, and a post-graduate fellowship in which selected students work with a mentor to refine their craft and complete a final writing sample. Together, these components make the IWR a standout program at the university.