These are grants, fellowships, and residencies for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism, ranging from a few hundred dollars to about $180,000. They are open now, or have announced when they will open. Many of them are open for writers around the world. – S. Kalekar
Speculative Literature Foundation: Diverse Writers and Diverse Worlds Grants
They are for two grants in July; writers can apply for one or both grants.
— The Diverse Writers grant is to support new and emerging writers of speculative fiction from underrepresented groups, including writers of color, disabled, women or working-class writers.
— The Diverse Worlds grant is for work that best represents a diverse world, irrespective of the writer’s background.
Writers may apply for one or both grants. The project must be a proposed book-length work of speculative fiction (novels, short story collections). Non-fiction, poetry, picture books, and editorial projects are not eligible. See their schedule for other grants, with later submission periods.
Value: Two grants of $500 each
Deadline: 31 July 2024
Open for: Underrepresented writers for Diverse Writers; and writers whose work represents a diverse world for Diverse Worlds
Details here (grant details) and here (schedule for all their grants).
Horror Writers Association Scholarships
These scholarships offer various amounts for assisting authors in professional development as horror writers. There are various amounts and requirements. The Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly scholarship, worth $2,500, is for writers who identify as women, and the Horror Writers Association scholarship, worth $2,500, is for all writers (no membership necessary). They also have Diversity Grants, worth $500 each, which “will be open to underrepresented, diverse people who have an interest in the horror writing genre, including, but not limited to writers, editors, reviewers, and library workers. … the Diversity Grants have adopted the broadest definition of the word diversity to include, but not limited to, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabled, and neurodiverse.” There is also the Dark Poetry Scholarship, the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Nonfiction Writing, the Dennis Etchison Young Writers Scholarship, and Young Adults Write Now endowment program for libraries. The funds can be used for various things like course fees, resources like textbooks and guides, subscriptions for appropriate periodicals, and registration fees for relevant literary festivals. Except for The Scholarship from Hell (for StokerCon), all their scholarships will open for applications on 1st August 2024.
Value: Various
Opens on: 1 August 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here.
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
This international grant is to support the translation of book-length works of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation. Works should be translations-in-progress, as the grant aims to provide support for completion. The works must be translated into English. Projects may have up to two translators. There are various submission requirements, including a translation sample of 8-10 pages.
Value: $2,000-4,000
Deadline: 1 August 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
(Note: Translations from Italian will be considered for the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature.)
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists
This is for an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. The fellowship is for helping writers whose work is of high literary caliber and is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length fiction work-in-progress. Applicants must have already published one work for children or young adults that was warmly received by literary critics, but whose work has not yet attracted a broad readership. Candidates must have published one or more novels for children or young adults that have been warmly received by literary critics, but have not generated significant sales. The writer’s previously published book(s) must be published by a U.S. trade publisher; self-published works are ineligible. The submitted work must be a novel-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2025.
Value: $5,000
Deadline: 1 August 2024
Open for: Published YA/children’s writers (by a US trade publisher)
Details here and here.
PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History
These grants are for literary works of nonfiction that use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. They are to help maintain or complete ongoing projects. Oral history must be a significant portion of the work and its research. Writers have to send in writing samples and transcripts as part of the application.
Value: Two grants of $15,000 each
Deadline: 1 August 2024
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here.
The PEN/Bare Life Review Grants
These are new grants, which recognize literary works by immigrant and refugee writers. Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status, are eligible to apply. The project must be a work of a literary nature: fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetry, and translated works (in case of translated works, the grant will be conferred to the original author). A writing sample is part of the submission requirements — up to 40 pages for poetry, and 75 pages for other genres. For the 2025 grant cycle, they will confer two grants. The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2025, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.
Value: $5,000 each
Deadline: 1 August 2024
Open for: Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and to writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status
Details here and here.
The Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Fellowships
This is an international opportunity. Their website says, “The Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Fellowships is recruiting eight to ten journalists from anywhere in the world to report on the impacts of algorithms and automated systems in their communities. We encourage journalists from the Global South and from communities that are underrepresented in the media to apply. … Previous Fellows reported on a vast range of in-depth stories that gives us a nuanced look at the real-life consequences of AI technologies. Their reporting has triggered policy reforms, sparked official inquiries, and inspired college newspapers to start their own investigations and student poets to examine AI accountability.” Also see their FAQ.
Value: $20,000
Deadline: 10 August 2024
Open for: Journalists
Details here and here.
(See all of the Pulitzer Centre’s grants and fellowships 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. “A percentage of the residencies are dedicated to nature writing, a form of fiction or creative non-fiction that raises awareness of nature, prepares for a sustainable future, and helps to better understand socio-environmental interconnections and the impact of human actions on nature.” 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. Excerpts from your writing, both current and previous, can be in any language, not necessarily English or French.
Value: Round-trip travel, CHF400 per week
Deadline: 26 August 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Scholarship
These are for professionals various disciplines, including literature and art. Collectives can also apply.
Value: €1,500 per month (less rental and operational cost), residency at Schöppingen, Germany; up to €3,000 for collectives
Deadline: 31 August 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and 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: 9 September 2024
Open for:U.S.-based journalists or those working on a story with a strong U.S. angle
Details here.
(And, Fund for Investigative Journalism is also accepting applications for “seed” grants for early reporting of $1,000 to $2,500, the deadline is 20 September 2024; journalists must be U.S.-based or working on a story with a strong U.S. angle; 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: $92,000 per year ($184,000 for the two-year fellowship), residency at Princeton
Deadline: 10 September 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Princeton: Hodder Fellowship
Potential Hodder Fellows are composers, choreographers, performance artists, visual artists, writers, translators 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. There are no formal teaching duties attached. Fellows have access to shared spaces on campus at Princeton, for the duration of their fellowship.
One does not have to be a US citizen to apply for this fellowship. A Hodder Fellow must be based in the U.S. during the Fellowship, and Fellows have access to shared spaces on campus for the duration of their fellowship (see FAQ, scroll down to Hodder Fellowship).
Value: $92,000, additional $5,000 for research
Deadline: 10 September 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Harvard University: Radcliffe Institute Fellowships
These are for various disciplines, including creative arts – which include, but are not limited to, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, as well as journalism, and playwriting. 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.” The fellowship pays $78,000, and an additional $5,000 for project expenses; fellows also get an office at Harvard University, additional funds for moving expenses, childcare and housing, etc. The deadline for some disciplines, including creative arts, is in September.
Value: $78,000; additional funds for project expenses, and other things
Deadline: 12 September 2024
Open for: Published writers and journalists
Details here, here, here, and here.
(And journalists wanting to apply for the Nieman Fellowships at Harvard should keep an eye on their website; applications will open later in the year. Fellows get $85,000 over a nine-month fellowship and other expenses, see the FAQ here. The deadlines to apply are 1 December for international journalists, and 31 January for U.S. journalists; there are also the Nieman Visiting Fellowships for short-term research projects designed to advance journalism.)
Guggenheim Fellowships
They will soon open for applications. The Guggenheim Fellowships are for US and Canadian citizens 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. Also see their FAQ.
Value: Varies
Timeline: Will open for 2025 applications in mid-August 2024 and the deadline will be in mid-September – see here for timeline
Open for: US and Canadian citizens
Details here (timeline), here (how to apply), here (application resources), and here (submission materials).
Patrick Henry Fellowship
This fellowship is from the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. It is for those working on American history and/or legacy. The residential fellowship supports work on the subject by both scholars and non-academics in many genres. Applicants should have a significant project currently in progress — a book, film, oral history archive, podcast series, museum exhibition, or similar work. The project should address the history and/or legacy – broadly defined – of the U.S. founding era and/or the nation’s founding ideas. They will open for applications mid-September.
Value: $45,000, health benefits, book allowance, faculty privileges, residency
Opens on: 15 September 2024
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Fulbright Scholarships
This is a program for US citizens. Their website says, “The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 400 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world.” 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 2025-26 cycle can be found here.
Value: Various
Deadline: 16 September 2024
Open for: US Citizens
Details here.
Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship
This is for published fiction and non-fiction writers who were born in Africa or whose parents were born in Africa (see ‘Do I need to prove my African birth place?’ in FAQ). 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. A published writing sample is part of the application (see guidelines). One of the scholarship requirements is, writers have to submit 10,000 words of writing every month (see guidelines). They also say, “The Foundation will not review or comment on the monthly submissions as they come in. However, each Scholar will be offered the opportunity to be mentored by an established author or publisher. In most cases the mentorship will begin after the book has been finished and the Scholarship period has ended.” And, “Scholars are also asked to donate to the MMF 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from the book they write during the period of their Scholarship. … These funds will be used to support other promising writers. The 20% return obligation should be considered a debt of honour rather than a legally binding obligation.”
Value: £18,000 for fiction writers, possible additional funds for non-fiction writers, mentorship
Deadline: 20 September 2024 (see ‘Important Dates’ in the entry requirements here.)
Open for: African writers
Details here (entry requirements) and here (application form).
New York Public Library: Cullman Centre Fellowship
This is for writers whose project draws on the collection housed in The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, formerly the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Visual artists can also apply (see guidelines).
Value: $85,000 and residency
Deadline: 27 September 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
American Academy in Berlin Fellowship
This is for US-based people (including collaborators) who wish to engage in independent study (generally, for an academic semester). Academy fellows are established and emerging scholars, writers, and professionals who wish to engage in independent study. Applicants working in most other fields—such as journalism, filmmaking, or public policy—must have a significant record of publication or production. Writers of fiction and nonfiction must have published at least one book with a reputable press at the time of application (composers, artists, and poets are by invitation only). Candidates should explain how their projects will benefit from a residency in Berlin, but they need not be working on German topics. 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. You have to sign into SlideRoom to apply; see the help centre here.
Value: Round-trip airfare, $5,000 per month, residency near Berlin
Deadline: 30 September 2024
Open for: Those permanently based in the US
Details here and here.
Speculative Literature Foundation: Working Class Writers Grant
This is an international grant is to help writers of speculative literature, and will open to applications on 1st September. 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. One of the submission requirements is a writing sample of poetry, drama, fiction, or creative non-fiction (see guidelines); the submitted work must be speculative. Unlike their other grants, writers may receive this grant anonymously or pseudonymously. They also have other grant submission periods coming up.
Value: $1,000
Application timeline: 1st to 30th September 2024
Open for: All writers from working class background
Details here (Working Class Writers Grant) and here (schedule for all grants).
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. They have various deadlines through the year; the next one is in October. The opportunity will likely appear on their Submittable closer to the date. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline:1 October 2024
Open for: US writers
Details here.
(Some of PEN America’s other initiatives are open now, see their Submittable for details.)
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 10 weeks.
Value: €350 per week (€3,500 for 10 weeks), basic coach class travel booked in advance (see guidelines)
Deadline: 1 October 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and 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. The annual theme for this cycle is Repair. Also see the African American Art History Initiative Fellowship on the program page. Also see their FAQ.
Value: $21,500-65,000, residency
Deadline: 1 October 2024
Open for: Established scholars and writers
Details here and here.
American Antiquarian Society: Fellowships for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers
These are fellowships for historical research by the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massachusetts, for those who wish to produce “imaginative, non-formulaic works dealing with pre-twentieth-century American history.” Typically, two Hearst Foundations Fellowships and two Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellowships are awarded annually. Fellowship projects may include (but are not limited to) historical novels, documentary films, TV programs, radio broadcasts, plays, screenplays, illustration and other graphic arts, magazine or newspaper articles, and non-fiction works of history for a general audience, either for adults or for children.
Value: $2,000, residency
Deadline: 5 October 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and here
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 text, photo, audio, or short-form video 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 (you do not have to be a business journalist to apply; many of their many of their previous Fellows have been generalists, or cover beats such as health care, education, environment, corporate accountability or inequality). Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization or a journalism non-profit, may apply. The application includes a story proposal. Generally, they do not accept book proposals. They consider proposals of interest to U.S. readers from both foreign and American journalists based abroad, as long as the work is published in English in a U.S.-based media outlet. They accept applications twice a year. The deadline to apply for Fall 2024 Fellowships is October 6, 2024. Applications for the Spring 2025 Fellowships will be due March 31, 2025. Also see their FAQ.
Value: Grants of up to $15,000
Deadline: 6 October 2024 (will also 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.
Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship
This is for a poet of American birth, 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. One of the requirements is a poetry sample.
Value: Approximately $74,000 adjusted for inflation; if there are two winners, each will receive the full amount
Deadline: 15 October 2024 (must be received by this date)
Open for: Poets of American birth (see guidelines)
Details here (application instructions), here (FAQ – includes link to application form), and here (home page).
The Open Notebook/Burroughs Wellcome Fund Early Career Fellowship Program
This is a global opportunity for early-career science journalists; it will open for applications in late September 2024, and the deadline is in October. The fellowship is remote and part-time. Fellows will pitch, report and write four articles for publication at The Open Notebook with the guidance of a mentor who will help shape story ideas, provide reporting and writing guidance, edit final copy, and offer career-development mentoring. Each fellow will receive a stipend. The fellowship is open to early-career science writers with less than three years of regular professional science writing experience. (Internships and student work do not count toward this requirement). Graduate students in the sciences who are interested in science writing are eligible.
Value: $6,000
Application period: Late September 2024 – 31 October 2024
Open for: Early-career science journalists
Details here.
Speculative Literature Foundation: Gulliver Travel Grant
This international grant will open for applications in November. It is to help writers of speculative literature (in poetry, drama, fiction, or creative non-fiction) in their non-academic research. It is to be used to cover airfare, lodging, and/or other travel expenses. Writing samples are part of the application requirement (see guidelines). This grant is awarded on the basis of interest and merit. The application portal for this grant will open during the submission period. They also have other grant submission periods coming up.
Value: $1,000
Application period: 1st to 30th November 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here (Gulliver Travel Grant) and here (schedule for all grants).
San José State University: Center for Steinbeck Studies – The Steinbeck Fellows Program
This awards writers of any age and background a $15,000 fellowship to finish a significant writing project, and will begin accepting submissions in September. Fellowships are offered in Creative Writing (excluding poetry) and Steinbeck Studies; Fellows may be appointed in many fields, including fiction, drama, creative non-fiction, and biography. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between your work and Steinbeck’s. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center and the University’s creative writing program.
Value: Up to 6 fellowships of $15,000 each
Application period: September 2024 – 5 January 2025
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
About Her Culture Micro Grants
Their website says, “For the rest of 2024, we are giving away a few $500 USD micro grants to women of African and Caribbean descent, based anywhere in the world, who are entrepreneurs, nonprofit founders and creatives.” And, “Our micro grants are open to Caribbean and African women + women of African and Caribbean descent, who are entrepreneurs, creatives and non-profit founders, based in their home countries or anywhere around the world. Applicants must demonstrate that their projects are positively impacting culture and community.”
Value: $500
Deadline: Open now
Open for: Caribbean and African women + women of African and Caribbean descent, who are entrepreneurs, creatives and non-profit founders
Details here.
The Awesome Foundation Grants
These are no-strings-attached microgrants, available through autonomous chapters. Each chapter supports “awesome” projects through micro-grants. The grants are for people and groups. One of their past projects is a literary magazine started for people who wait for their clothes to dry in in laundromats; you can read about more about the Literature for Laundrymats project here and all the Awesome Foundation projects here.
Value: $1,000 each
Deadline: Open now
Open for: Those working on awesome projects
Details here.
International Women’s Media Foundation Grants
International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has several grants/awards for women and non-binary journalists; some of them are open now, including the international Howard G. Buffet Fund for Women Journalists (rolling deadline); and US-based Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Transgender People (rolling deadline).
Value: Varies
Deadline: Varies
Open for: Women and non-binary journalists
Details here.
(Click on IWMF’s Opportunities and Awards tabs on this page for more.)
Bonus: Writers Omi Residency
This residency is at Ledig House, a couple of hours north of New York City. It has an impressive alumni list, including Booker, PEN/Faulkner Award and Commonwealth Prize winners. Guests may select a residency of one week to two months; about ten writers at a time gather to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. There is no cash award. They also have a translation lab. Published writers and translators can apply. Their website says, “The next application cycle, Art Omi: Writers 2025, will open on August 15, 2024.” Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
