Here are 21 grants, fellowships, and residencies for writers of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and for playwrights, screenwriters, and journalists. The grants are up to $86,000. Some of the deadlines are approaching quickly. – S. Kalekar
ProPublica Emerging Reporters Program
This program is to develop more minority journalists for US newsrooms, where they are underrepresented. Their website says, “The Emerging Reporters Program is specifically designed for those who might find investigative journalism inaccessible. All students who will be juniors or seniors in college this academic year are eligible to apply, and African Americans, Latinos and other people of color are especially encouraged to do so. Participants are expected to take a full course load during the 2021-22 school year. Applicants must also demonstrate financial need. The purpose of the stipend is to make college journalism accessible to students for whom it would otherwise be economically out of reach.” This opportunity offers a stipend, along with mentoring and trips to the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting conference and their New York office (or virtual programming), for five students each year who work or want to work at college journalism outlets: newspapers, websites, radio stations or TV stations.
Value: $9,000
Deadline: 7 September 2021
Open for: US citizens or resident aliens
Details here.
Harvard University: Radcliffe Institute Fellowships
These are for various disciplines, including creative writing – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, as well as journalism, playwriting and screenwriting. Their guidelines also say, “Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. We seek diversity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspective. Although our fellows come from many different backgrounds, they are united by their demonstrated excellence, collegiality, and creativity.”
Value: $78,000, additional $5,000 for project expenses, office at Harvard University, additional funds for moving expenses, childcare and housing, etc.
Deadline: 9 September 2021
Open for: All published writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
Princeton Arts Fellowship
This is for artists in many disciplines, including literary, whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. This is a two-year program and there is a teaching duty attached. Writers do not have to be US citizens to apply. You can apply for this fellowship twice in a lifetime.
Value: $86,000 per year ($172,000 for the two-year fellowship), residency at Princeton
Deadline: 14 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Hodder Fellowships
Potential Hodder Fellows are composers, choreographers, performance artists, visual artists, writers or other kinds of artists or humanists who have “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts”; they are selected more “for promise than for performance.” Most writers have had their first book published. The Hodder is designed to provide Fellows with the “studious leisure” to undertake significant new work. One does not have to be a US citizen to apply for this ten-month fellowship.
Value: $86,000, additional $5,000 for research, residency at Princeton
Deadline: 14 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Scholarship
These are for various disciplines, including art and literature. There are no age limit restrictions for applying.
Value: €1,500 per month (less rental and operational cost), residency at Schöppingen, Germany
Deadline: 15 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Fulbright Scholarships
This is a program for US citizens. Their website says, “The Fulbright US Scholar Program is the largest program of its kind in the United States, awarding more than 800 fellowships annually. Over 400 different types of opportunities are available to teach, research and conduct professional projects in more than 135 countries.” There are opportunities for higher education faculty and administrators, professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, and independent scholars outside of the academy. Applicants can opt for teaching, research, teaching/research, and professional projects, in various countries. The opportunities range from a few months to a year. The awards for the 2022-23 cycle can be found here.
Value: Various
Deadline: 15 September 2021
Open for: US Citizens
Details here.
2021 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize
The annual Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional chapbook-length manuscripts by Black poets (25-30 pages – see guidelines). Apart from a cash award and publication, the winner also gets a residency at The Writer’s Room at The Betsy Hotel in Miami, and a a featured virtual reading at the O, Miami Poetry Festival.
Value: $1,000, residency
Deadline: 15 September 2021
Open for: Black poets
Details here.
Guggenheim Fellowships
These are for people in various disciplines, including literature, who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. No special conditions are attached to the fellowships. See FAQ for deadline dates, etc, and this submission materials link.
Value: Varies
Deadline: 17 September 2021
Open for: US and Canadian citizens
Details here and here.
Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship
This is for fiction writers who were born in Africa or both of whose parents were born in Africa. Writers of non-fiction can also apply, and receive additional funds at the discretion of the foundation panel. Writers are asked to donate a percentage of earnings from sales of what they have written in the scholarship period to the Miles Morland Foundation – a moral obligation, though not a legally binding one. The money is paid monthly over a course of a year. For non-fiction writers, additional funds can be made available, and given over a period of 18 months.
Value: £18,000 for fiction writers, possible additional funds for non-fiction writers
Deadline: 18 September 2021
Open for: African writers
Details here.
Fondation Jan Michalski Residencies for Writers
These are residencies at the foot of the Jura mountains in Montricher, Switzerland. It is open to all types of writers engaged in literary creation. While they give priority to writers and translators, they are also open to any other discipline as long as writing is at the heart of the project. There are no age or nationality restrictions. Writers working on a project with a collaborator can apply in pairs. Applications can be in English or French.
Value: Round-trip travel, CHF1,200 per month
Deadline: 21 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
New York Public Library’s Cullman Center Fellowship
The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards fifteen Fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers—academics, independent scholars, journalists, creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets), translators, and visual artists. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Candidates for the Fellowship will need to work primarily at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building rather than at other divisions of the Library.
Value: $75,000
Deadline: 24 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
American Academy in Berlin Fellowship
This is for US-based people who wish to engage in independent study, for a semester. Writers must have published at least one book (composers, artists, and poets are by invitation only). Past recipients have included historians, economists, filmmakers, art historians, journalists, legal scholars, musicologists, public-policy experts, former government officials, NGO leaders, and writers. Most accommodations are also suitable for couples; they also offer accommodations for a limited number of families with children.
Value: Round-trip airfare, $5,000 per month, residency near Berlin
Deadline: 27 September 2021
Open for: People permanently based in the US
Details here.
Speculative Literature Foundation’s Working Class Writers Grant
This grant is to help writers of speculative literature. This grant is awarded annually to assist working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers, and writers from these backgrounds, who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction due to financial barriers. Unlike their other grants, writers may receive this grant anonymously or pseudonymously. They have other grant submission periods coming up – for the Gulliver Travel Research Grant, and the A C Bose Grant for South Asian/South Asian Diaspora writers.
Value: $1,000
Deadline: 30 September 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here (grant details) and here (schedule for all grants).
The McGraw Business Journalism Fellowship
The McGraw Fellowship provides editorial and financial support to journalists who need the time and resources to produce a significant investigative or enterprise story that provides fresh insight into an important business, financial or economic topic. They accept applications for in-depth text, video or audio pieces, and they encourage proposals that take advantage of more than one storytelling form to create a multimedia package. This is not a residency Fellowship. All Fellows work from their own offices. It is open to anyone with at least five years professional experience in journalism. Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization or a journalism non-profit, may apply. Applicants should submit a story proposal of no more than three pages. The applications are open twice annually.
Value: Grants of up to $15,000
Deadline: 30 September 2021 – “However, we will consider time-sensitive projects on a case-by-case basis outside of the deadline periods.”
Open for: Anyone with at least five years of experience in journalism
Details here.
Getty Scholar Grants
These are for researchers of all nationalities who are working in the arts, humanities, or social sciences, for established scholars and writers who have achieved distinction in their fields. Recipients can pursue their own projects free from academic obligations and make use of Getty collections. There are three-, six-, and nine-month residencies.
Value: $21,500-65,000, residency
Deadline: 1 October 2021
Open for: Established scholars and writers
Details here.
The Camargo Core Program
This residency at Cassis, France is for artists (including writers, playwrights and translators) and scholars/thinkers, to think, create and connect. Applicants should have a publication and/or grant track record. They welcome spouses/partners and dependent minor children. Fellowships span 6 to 11 weeks.
Value: $250 per week, basic coach class travel (see guidelines)
Deadline: 1 October 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
US Writers Aid Initiative
This is an emergency fund for US-based professional writers with publication history (see guidelines) – fiction and nonfiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address an emergency situation. They have various deadlines, through 2021 and 2022; the next one is on 1 October 2021.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: 1 October 2021
Open for: US-based professional writers
Details here and here.
Canada Council for the Arts’ Explore and Create Grants
These are for Canadian artists, curators and writers (literature includes fiction, poetry, drama, graphic novel, young people’s literature, literary non-fiction, exploratory literary works using new technologies, spoken word creation, storytelling and literary performance). Grants provide support for creative research, creation and project development. Individuals who are Deaf or who have disabilities, including those living with mental illness, and require accommodation at any stage of the application process may be eligible for additional assistance.
Value: Up to CAD25,000
Deadline: 6 October 2021
Open for: Canadian writers
Details here and here.
Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
This is for a poet born in the US, who is willing to spend a year outside the continent of North America. While many recent winners have been published poets, there is no requirement that applicants have previously published their work. Applications have to be mailed.
Value: Approximately $62,500, adjusted for inflation
Deadline: 15 October 2021
Open for: American-born poets
Details here (application instructions), here (FAQ – includes link to application form), and here (home page).
Black Mountain Institute: Shearing Fellowship
This is a residential fellowship for emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press. Apart from the cash stipend, this fellowship includes: a semester-long letter of appointment; eligibility for health coverage; office space in the BMI offices on the campus of UNLV; free housing (fellows cover some utilities) in a unique and vibrant arts complex in the bustling district of downtown Las Vegas. While there are no formal teaching requirements, this is a “working fellowship” (see guidelines). The Believer magazine is associated with this institute.
(The page also has details of City of Asylum fellowships, now closed, which provides safe haven for writers whose voices are muffled by censorship, or who are living with the threat of imprisonment or assassination; these are associated with the International Cities of Refuge network, which serves as an umbrella organization and information clearinghouse for local asylum programs worldwide – also see their Residencies, Scholarships, and Grants list; some information is dated, but it is a great resource for artists at risk.)
Value: $20,000 over 4 months, residency
Deadline: 1 November 2021
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Malice Domestic Grants for Unpublished Writers
This is given to an unpublished writer (see guidelines) in the Malice Domestic genre at each year’s Malice Domestic convention. The grant may be used to offset registration, travel, or other expenses related to attendance at a writers’ conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award. In the case of non-fiction, the grant may be used to offset research expenses. The Malice Domestic genre is loosely described as mystery stories of the Agatha Christie type—i.e. “traditional mysteries.” These works usually feature no excessive gore, gratuitous violence, or explicit sex. See guidelines for additional details and submission requirements. Apart from the cash award, the prize covers a comprehensive registration for the upcoming convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel, but does not include travel to the convention or meals.
Value: $2,500, and other expenses – see above
Deadline: 1 November 2021
Open for: Unpublished writers in the Malice Domestic genre
Details here.
Pulitzer Center: 2021 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 U.S. coastal states. Started in 2019, this initiative is building a consortium of newsrooms and independent journalists across the U.S. 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. Grants are open now and approved on a rolling basis.
Open for: U.S. based writers
Value: $2,000 to $8,000
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.