Putting pen to paper is what set the new Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park apart from other applicants, but not just for her storytelling. It was a good old-fashioned hand-written thank you card that made Amelia Estelle Dellos stand out to Executive Director Keith Strom.
The formal Writer-in-Residence program was introduced to Hemingway’s Oak Park birthplace in 2012 to further serve the organization’s mission to share Hemingway’s history and impact while also encouraging the importance of reading and writing to support current artists.
“It’s one thing to talk about an artist’s legacy, but then how does that impact people of today?” said Strom. “What we’ve been trying to do is also have a parallel mission in terms of supporting artists of today and tomorrow.”
The Writer-in-Residence is an “ambassador for the foundation” and mentor for the winner of its high school writing contest according the foundation’s website. The writer also gets to use the attic space of the birth home at 339 N. Oak Park Ave. for their work.
Dellos was named the 2026-2027 Writer-in-Residence and brings a wide array of storytelling experiences to the role. She has strong ties to Oak Park having moved here right after college and immersed herself in the community. In addition to being an award-winning writer, she has written, directed and produced films that have aired on PBS and Amazon Prime. She is also the managing editor of Unwoven Literary & Arts Magazine.
“Being a writer has just exponentially made my life more interesting and rich. The people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had, the films that I’ve made, the stories, the books that I’ve written, just doing that research, I feel like it’s added to my life in ways that I can’t even begin to quantify,” said Dellos. “I just can’t imagine not telling stories.”
She earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago in creative writing and will continue working on her thesis project during her time in this position. The project is a novel exploring death and grief using her own experience in serving as her mother’s death doula in her last few days.
Dellos shared that she loves being able to compare the themes and struggles present in historical literature to what is still relevant in today’s world in ways that young people can understand and relate to.
“Storytelling is what makes us human. It’s what gives us empathy, it’s what gives us sympathy, and it’s what makes us understand other people,” she said.
She also has a background in education as a former professor of writing and rhetoric at Columbia College and Roosevelt University. She said she loves to work with young adults and finds their curiosity inspiring. She is excited to step into her role as a mentor and get to work with the student writer.
As Writer-in-Residence, she will help in the process for the Hemingway Foundation Student Scholarship and the Allan O. Baldwin Memorial Student Scholarship which is open to juniors and seniors, respectively, in districts 200, 201, 208, 209 and 401. One of her biggest goals is to increase the number of applicants to these scholarships specifically students outside of the Oak Park and River Forest area.
“She’s bringing a new energy, some new perspective in some ways,” said Strom. “I’m looking for ideas so we can create some content and programming that people will find valuable, and they’ll come in and participate, and hopefully build upon us being an asset in the community.”