KaToya M. Fleming

KaToya Ellis Fleming is an assistant professor of publishing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the editor of Lookout Books. In her role at Lookout, she acquires and lead edits the literary works of emerging and historically underrepresented authors. Her first acquisition for the imprint, Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic, edited by the late Valerie Boyd, won the Georgia Author of the Year Award for specialty book and took home silver in anthology from the Foreword INDIES.

As a teacher, Fleming brings her editorial philosophy to her courses, providing students with a foundation for practicing social and cultural literacy and responsibility in the field of publishing.

Fleming currently serves on the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame Board of Judges. She was a 2023 Sewanee Writers’ Scholar and a recipient of the 2021 American Copy Editors Society Richard S. Holden Diversity Fellowship. Most recently she was awarded a 2024 Artist Support Grant from the Wilmington Arts Council. Prior to her role at UNCW, she was in residence in Little Rock as the 2019–2020 Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writers Fellow.

Fleming holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Narrative Nonfiction from the University of Georgia. She is a multigenre writer whose work focuses on race and culture in the American South.

Education

MFA in Narrative Nonfiction, University of Georgia
BA in English, Spelman College

Specialization in Teaching

• Editorial Process
• Publishing Practicum
• Experimental Book Forms
• Bibliomemoir
• Publishing Process
• Intro to Book Publishing
• The Debut Book

Research Interests

Bibliomemoir
The art and craft of developmental editing
Social and cultural literacy and responsible literary citizenship in the field of publishing

Honors & Awards

Wilmington Arts Council Artist Support Grant 2024
Sewanee Writer’s Conference 2023
Richard S. Holden Diversity Fellowship 2021
Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writing Fellowship 2019-2020
Grady College of Journalism Graduate Research Grant 2018
DemocraticGAIN Raise Your Voice Scholarship 2012
Spelman College Pauline E. Drake Scholarship 2012
CSRA Classic Scholarship for Excellence in Communications 1995
Revlon United Negro College Fund Scholarship 1995

Editor
Bigger Than Bravery, by Valerie Boyd. Lookout Books, Nov 2022.
• 2023 Georgia Author of the Year Award Winner for specialty book
• Foreword INDIES silver winner for anthology
• Best Books of 2022, Library Journal
• Big Indie Book of Fall, Publishers Weekly