Knight-Wallace Fellowships — Fellowship

The Knight-Wallace Fellowships are annual, in-person fellowships run by Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan. Fellows relocate to Ann Arbor for eight months, from late August through April, and step away from daily work to pursue an individual journalism project, university study, seminars and workshops.

The 2027–2028 application is not yet open and is scheduled to open in October 2026. U.S. applicants may also pursue the Great Lakes Local News or Arts Journalism specialty within the same general fellowship application.

Benefits & funding

An $85,000 stipend plus $5,000 for relocation, distributed monthly from August through April.
Wallace House pays health-insurance costs, course-auditing costs, and required workshop and fellowship-activity costs.
Fellows receive University of Michigan faculty access, private seminars, skills and leadership workshops, international travel, and help finding housing.

Eligibility

Applicants must have at least five years of professional experience and currently work for a news organization or as an independent journalist.
If journalism is not full-time work, it must make up the majority of the applicant’s work; public-relations writers, internal trade writers, lobbyists, public advocates and people seeking a degree are not considered.
All nationalities can use a citizenship-based route: U.S. citizens apply through the U.S. route and everyone else through the international route.
No prior degree level, age or gender threshold is published.
Fellows must live in Ann Arbor throughout the program, attend all seminars and events, and make the fellowship their primary professional focus without taking new assignments.
The Great Lakes Local News option is limited to U.S. journalists or strategists serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio or Wisconsin; the Arts Journalism option is limited to U.S. arts journalists and critics.

Can you apply?

Here's who can apply

Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

Experience required
≥ 5 yrs

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Application process

1
Choose the U.S. or international application route according to citizenship.
2
Prepare a résumé, a journalism project proposal of no more than 500 words, a personal statement of up to 1,500 words, and three recent work samples.
3
U.S. applicants arrange two professional references; international applicants provide references only if invited to Phase Two.
4
Create an account and submit the application through the official application platform after the 2027–2028 cycle opens in October 2026.

Program timeline

Final U.S. deadline of the most recently completed cycle; this is the structured reopening marker.
Feb 1, 2026
October 2026
Applications for 2027–2028 are scheduled to open; no exact day is published.
International application deadline.
Dec 1, 2026
International finalist interviews.
January–February 2027
U.S. application deadline.
Feb 1, 2027
International offers.
Mid-February 2027
U.S. finalist interviews.
April 2027
U.S. offers.
Early May 2027
Fellows arrive in Ann Arbor.
Mid-August 2027
Fellowship begins.
Late August 2027
Eight-month fellowship ends.
April 2028