These are grants/fellowships/residencies for writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, for playwrights, and journalists. They’re either open now, or will open soon for applications. None of these charge an application fee, and pay from a few hundred dollars up to $100,000. – S. Kalekar
Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center: Writer in Residence
The residency includes lodging at a loft apartment in Piggott, Arkansas. The writer-in-residence will also have the opportunity to work in the studio where Ernest Hemingway worked on ‘A Farewell to Arms’. The writer is expected to serve as mentor for a week-long retreat for writers at the educational center. Candidates with an MA or MFA in a relevant field are preferred.
Value: $1,000, residency
Deadline: 28 February 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Scripps Fellowships for Environmental Journalism
Five fellowships are awarded each year at the University of Boulder, Colorado. This is for journalists interested in deepening and broadening their knowledge of environmental issues. Applicants must have a minimum of five years full-time professional journalism experience and have completed an undergraduate degree. Applicants may include reporters, editors, producers, photojournalists, documentarians, and feature writers. Both salaried staff and full-time freelancers are welcome to apply. Prior experience in covering the environment is not required. They welcome applications from international applicants; however, the applicants must be authorized to work in the US to be eligible for this position.
Value: $80,000
Deadline: 1 March 2023
Open for: All journalists (see above)
Details here (general information), here (FAQ), and here (application portal).
Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship
Applicants must have covered international news as a working journalist for print, broadcast, or online media widely available in the United States, and must be US citizens. They must have distinguished credentials in journalism; two of the selection criteria are, professional experience as a foreign correspondent or editor, and firm grounding in foreign policy. The Fellow spends 10 months full-time in residence at the Council for Foreign Relations’ headquarters in New York. The program enables the Fellow to engage in sustained analysis and writing, expand his or her intellectual and professional horizons, and extensively participate in CFR’s active program of meetings and events.
Value: $100,000 and a modest travel grant
Deadline: 1 March 2023
Open for: US citizens
Details here.
Poetry Foundation Grants for Organizations in the US
They have various grants for US-based nonprofit organizations (these not for individuals) through the following priorities: Continuing relief funding to nonprofit poetry and literary arts organizations impacted by the pandemic; Investing in building and strengthening the capacity of BIPOC leadership at nonprofit poetry, literary arts, and publishing organizations, and programs; Cultivating and engaging new, diverse audiences for poetry; and Fostering new collaborations and partnerships, as well as innovation and new technologies in the field.
Value: $10,000-$100,000
Deadline: 1 March 2023
Open for: US-based poetry/literary arts organizations
Details herehttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/grants.
(Poetry Foundation also has grants and awards for individuals, and you can read about them here. Keep an eye out for this year’s application announcement dates, including for the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships for young US-based poets, which usually open in March. And Poetry Magazine’s Submittable is here.)
Alpine Fellowship Prizes
They have a Poetry Prize, a Writing Prize (for creative writing – fiction and nonfiction) a Theatre Prize, as well as Academic Writing Prize (for UK-based writers) and a Visual Arts Prize. Please read the guidelines for each genre carefully. The theme for this year is ‘Flourishing’ and the work must address that theme. One winner receives a cash prize in each category, and two runners-up receive a stipend that must be used to attend the symposium in Switzerland. Applicants can only enter one of their prizes.
Value: Varies; cash awards of £3,000 for winners in creative writing categories (poetry, writing, theatre), £1,000 travel stipend to attend the symposium for runners-up
Deadline: 1 March 2023
Open for: All writers
Details here (click on individual tabs for various genres).
Academy of American Poets: Raiziss/de Pachi Translation Fellowship
The fellowship will be given for the translation of modern Italian poetry. It is given to enable an American translator to travel, study, or otherwise advance a significant work-in-progress. It invites applications from those currently engaged in the translation of twentieth-century Italian poetry. There is a cash award and a five- week residency at the American Academy in Rome.
Value: $25,000
Deadline: 1 March 2023
Open for: US poets (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
(They have other awards also, both fee-free and fee-based, which you can see in their Submittable here.)
National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Writing Fellowships
This is for US-based writers, and they are accepting applications for prose (fiction and nonfiction) this year. While the deadline is 8th March, they recommend submitting applications early. Several fellowships are awarded.
Value: Up to $25,000
Deadline: 8 March 2023
Open for: US writers
Details here.
2023 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & Lewitt Studios Essay Prize
This is a prize for unpublished writers in the UK. Their website says, “the prize awards £3,000 to the best proposal for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000 words) by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal. In addition to the £3,000 prize the winner has the opportunity to go on residency at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios in Spoleto, Italy, to work on their book. The book will then be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.”
Value: £3,000, residency
Deadline: 13 March 2023
Open for: Unpublished UK/Ireland writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
International Thriller Writers Scholarships
They are awarding two separate scholarships for ThrillerFest 2023: one scholarship to a BIPOC author writing a thriller manuscript featuring a BIPOC protagonist, and one scholarship to an unpublished author who is writing a mystery/thriller novel (80-100k words). Each scholarship recipient will receive a cash stipend and a free pass to attend ThrillerFest XVIII, which takes place May 30 – June 3, 2023 in New York City. One of the application requirements is a writing sample. Application is via a form.
Value: $1,000 stipend, ThrillerFest pass
Deadline: 20 March 2023
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
A Public Space Writing Fellowship
This is an international six-month fellowship for emerging writers, and the aim is “to seek out and support writers who embrace risk in their work and their own singular vision.” Submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and—this year, for this first time—poetry are welcome. Three fellowships will be awarded. Writers get editorial support from A Public Space editors to prepare a piece for publication in the magazine; an honorarium; the opportunity to meet virtually with members of the publishing community, including agents, editors, and published writers; the opportunity to participate in a public reading and conversation with A Public Space editors and contributors. The submission includes, for prose, one fiction or nonfiction piece with a limit of 8,000 words; for poetry, a sequence of poems, a long poem, or hybrid work, with a limit of 15 pages; if selected, this submitted manuscript will be the piece published in the magazine.
Value: $1,000 each
Application period: 1-31 March 2023
Open for: Writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a US publisher
Details here (announcement with Submittable link)
The Joan Shorenstein Fellowship
This is a residency/fellowship from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. “The mission of the Joan Shorenstein Fellowship is to advance research in the field of media, politics and public policy; facilitate a dialogue among journalists, scholars, policymakers and students; provide an opportunity for reflection; … The primary focus for a Fellow is to research, write and publish a paper on a media/politics topic.” Also, “Past fellows include journalists from local, national and international TV, radio, print, and digital media; media and civic technology innovators; nonfiction authors; political advisors and policymakers; leading academic scholars in fields such as media research and political science; and policy analysts. Successful former fellows have come from a variety of backgrounds and career stages.” Applicants must be a working journalist, politician, scholar or policymaker currently or recently active in the field. For the Fall semester, the deadline is in March; for the Spring semester, the deadline is in September.
Value: $40,000; residency
Deadline: 31 March 2023
Open for: Non-fiction authors and journalists
Details here.
PEN America: US Writers Aid Initiative
This is intended to assist fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. To be eligible, applicants must be based in the United States, be professional writers, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address an emergency situation. Various deadlines are listed for 2023, and the next one is 1st April. Other deadlines are in July and October. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: 1 April 2023
Open for: US writers
Details here.
The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers
These three-month fellowships are to afford writers uninterrupted time to focus on their work at an apartment in Carson McCuller’s childhood home in Columbus, Georgia. A spouse or companion is welcome. The application includes a writing sample of up to 20 pages.
Value: $5,000, residency
Deadline: 1 April 2023
Details here (scroll down to Academic Opportunities and click on Fellowships).
ALTA Travel Fellowship
Each year, fellowships are awarded to emerging translators (someone who does not yet have a book-length work of translation published or under contract) to help them pay for hotel and travel expenses to the annual American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference. Part of the application requirement is up to 10 pages of translated work (poetry or prose – see guidelines). Also see ALTA’s other awards for published works.
Value: $500-1,000 each
Deadline: 17 April 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here (scroll down).
Whiting Foundation: Creative Nonfiction Grant
Up to 10 grants will be awarded to writers of creative non-fiction books – projects must be under contract with a publisher in the US, UK, or Canada to be eligible. Contracts with self-publishing companies are not eligible. The subjects are history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, the sciences, philosophy, criticism, food or travel writing, graphic nonfiction, and personal essays, among other categories. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing, after significant work has been accomplished. The work should be intended for general, not academic, audiences. One of the application requirements is sample chapters, up to 25,000 words.
Value: $40,000 each
Deadline: 25 April 2023
Open for: Nonfiction books contracted with a publisher in the US, UK, or Canada
Details here and here.
Waterston Desert Writing Prize
This prize is for a proposed book of literary non-fiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place, and desert literacy – with the desert both as subject and setting. Writing samples about deserts and natural settings are more likely to be reviewed favorably. Apart from the cash award, there is also a residency at PLAYA at Summer Lake and a reading and reception at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon.
Value: $3,000, residency
Deadline: 1 May 2023
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
CINTAS Foundation: Fellowship in Creative Writing
This is a creative writing fellowship for writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage (having a Cuban parent or grandparent). Applications can be in English or Spanish. Fellows who are not U.S. citizens and who are living abroad must provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number when they accept the fellowship to receive payment. The foundation also offers fellowships for other disciplines – architecture & design, music composition, photography, and visual arts (click the ‘Fellowships’ tab on the page).
Value: $20,000
Deadline: 1 May 2023
Open for: Writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage
Details here.
Academy of American Poets: James Laughlin Award
This is for a second full-length poetry manuscript by a US poet, contracted by a publisher. Manuscripts have to be 48-100 pages long. Translations and new editions of previously published books are not eligible. Apart from a cash prize, the poet also receives an all-expenses-paid weeklong residency at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Value: $5,000, residency
Deadline: 15 May 2023
Open for: US poets (see guidelines)
Details here.
Fund for Investigative Journalism Grants
Their regular grants are for articles by US journalists that break new ground and expose wrongdoing – such as corruption, malfeasance, or abuse of power – in the public and private sectors. FIJ encourages proposals written for ethnic media as well as those submitted by journalists of color. “The Fund provides grants for print and online articles, television and radio stories, documentaries, podcasts, and books.” Also, “foreign-based story proposals must come from US-based reporters or have a strong US angle involving American citizens, government, or business; all stories must be published in English, in a media outlet in the United States.”
Value: Up to $10,000
Deadline: 31 May 2023
Open for: US journalists and writers
Details here.
(Also see the FIJ Emergency Grant: Threats to Democracy in the US on that page; the grant is $10,000, and the deadline is 1 January 2024.)
The Africa Institute: Global Africa Translation Fellowship
The fellowship welcomes applications from across the Global South for a grant to complete translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora, into English or Arabic. This is a non-residential fellowship. Projects may be retranslations of old, classic texts, previously untranslated works, poetry, prose, or critical theory collections. The project may be a work-in-progress, or a new project feasible for completion within the timeframe of the grant. Application includes a translation sample.
Deadline: 1 June 2023
Value: $1,000-5,000
Open for: Translators in the Global South
Details here.
Speculative Literature Foundation Grants
These are grants for writers of speculative literature, and they have various grants in the coming months: The Older Writers Grant for writers who are at least 50 years old, pays $1,000, open 1-31 May; The Diverse Writers Grant, for writers from an underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds, pays $500, open 1-31 July; The Diverse Worlds Grant, for work that best represents diversity, regardless of the writer’s background, pays $500 also open 1-31 July; they also have other grants listed. The grants have different eligibility and submission guidelines, please read them carefully before applying. Please send submissions only during the specific grant application periods.
Value: $500-1,000
Reading periods: Various (see guidelines)
Open for: Writers of speculative literature
Details here.
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing
This award is for an outstanding mid-career editorial writer or columnist to help broaden his or her journalistic horizons and knowledge of the world. The annual award can be used to cover the cost of study, research and/or travel in any field. The fellowship results in editorials and other writings, including books. One of the eligibility requirements is, the candidate must hold a position as a part-time or full-time editorial writer or columnist at a news publication located in the US. Applications also are welcome from freelance opinion writers who devote a majority of their time, or derive a majority of their income, from that pursuit. The application includes five samples of editorials or columns.
Value: $75,000
Deadline: 19 June 2023
Open for: Editorial writer/columnist at a news publication in the US
Details here.
Pulitzer Center: Connected Coastlines Grants
This is an opportunity for US-based journalists. The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications from journalists who want to report stories as part of Connected Coastlines, a nationwide climate reporting initiative in US coastal states. Started in 2019, this initiative is building a consortium of newsrooms and independent journalists across the US to report on the local effects of erratic weather patterns on coastal populations using the latest climate science. Their guidelines say, “We are eager to receive proposals from staff journalists and freelancers who wish to report on coastal stories, underpinned by recent climate science, data, or research, for publication or broadcast by small and regional news outlets in U.S. coastal states.” They prioritize proposals that can be completed in 1-4 months. The ideal range for most awards will be between $2,000 to $8,000.
Value: $2,000-8,000
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: US-based journalists
Details here.
(The Pulitzer Center also has several other resources, including grants and fellowships – click on the ‘Grants & Fellowships’ tab on this page.)
The Sidney Hillman Foundation: Labor and Workforce Reporting Grants
Their guidelines say, “Please submit a well-focused story proposal of no more than three pages. Think of it as a pitch, much like you would submit to an editor: give us enough preliminary reporting and documentation to demonstrate that the story is solid. The proposal should highlight what’s new and significant about the story, why it matters now, any unique access or documents you may have, and what its potential impact might be.” Journalists must have an outlet already attached. This foundation also administers the Hillman Prize for Journalism for US and Canadian journalists, the deadline for which has passed for this year.
Value: Up to $5,000
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Society of Authors: Dursilla Harvey Access Fund
These are small grants for UK-based writers, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats. Usual grants will be under £100 and no more than £350. They are accepted on a rolling basis starting 1 January 2023.
Value: Up to £350
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: UK/British writers
Details here.
(Society of Authors also has awards for works in progress as well as contingency funds – all their grants are here.)
Authors League Fund
This emergency fund helps US-based writers, regardless of citizenship status or nationality, and American writers living abroad. It is for authors, dramatists, journalists, critics, short story writers, and poets. Recipients must be career writers with a substantial body of work in one of more of the following categories: 1) Book authors with at least one title published by an established traditional publisher. Authors with multiple titles are given priority; 2) Dramatists whose full-length plays have been produced in mid-size or large theaters and/or published by established dramatic presses; 3) Journalists, critics, essayists, short story writers, and poets with a substantial body of work in periodicals with a national or broad circulation. Common circumstances include: major income loss, including due to COVID-19; illness, or supporting a dependent family member in ill health; overwhelming medical or dental bills; imminent eviction and other forms of housing insecurity; struggling after a natural disaster. They help writers at all stage of life, though priority is given to sick and/or older writers.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: US-based writers and American writers living abroad
Details here.
American Society of Journalists and Authors: Writers Emergency Assistance Fund
The fund is for helping established freelance writers who, because of advanced age, illness, disability, a natural disaster, or an extraordinary professional crisis are unable to work. Writers need not be members of ASJA, but must have credentials that would qualify them for an ASJA membership.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: Established freelance writers
Details here.
Writers’ Trust of Canada: Woodcock Fund
This is a last-resource emergency resource for Canadian writers who face unforeseen financial crisis, who are actively working on a literary project. Eligible categories are fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, or children’s literature. The program is not intended to be a means of support for writers challenged to earn an income. A crisis of some nature is necessary to be considered. The program does not support screenwriting, journalism, academic works, educational or technical texts, travel guides or other service-focused texts, or formulaic romance writing.
Value: CAD2,000-10,000
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: Canadian citizens who have published at least two books, or an equivalent body of work
Details here and here.
SFWA Emergency Medical Fund
This is a fund created by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, to help SF/fantasy writers pay for funds not covered by medical insurance. The fund is only to cover short-term medical expenses, for emergencies that interfere with the ability to write.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Royal Literary Fund
The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) helps authors across the literary spectrum: novelists, poet and playwrights; writers of short stories and writers for children; crime writers, science writers, biographers. The circumstances of those they help vary greatly. Writers can apply for help from the RLF if they are suffering financial hardship and have had several works published in the UK for a general readership, without publication being subsidised. Self-published authors are not eligible. The RLF Committee has to pass applicants for literary merit before they are eligible for help. The committee meets eleven times a year to consider applications. A decision on literary merit and on the award of a grant/pension is made at the same meeting; the applicant is informed straightaway.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: Rolling
Open for: Those who’ve had several works published in the UK
Details here and here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
