The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the physical health and financial wealth of many individuals. If you are a writer in need, the following is a list of organizations that have established emergency funding and resources.
Poets & Writers COVID-19 Relief Fund
INFO: Poets & Writers’ Board of Directors established the Poets & Writers COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide emergency assistance to writers having difficulty meeting their basic needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund will provide grants of up to $1,000 to an initial cohort of approximately eighty writers in April. If we are able to secure additional funds, we will provide another round of funding.
ELIGIBILITY: Given limited funds currently available, at this time eligibility will be limited to writers who:
are listed in the Poets & Writers Directory as of April 10, 2020; or
have received a mini-grant from our Readings & Workshops program; or
have received one of the following awards or fellowships sponsored by Poets & Writers:
Amy Award
Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award
Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award
Galen Williams Fellowship
Poets & Writers employees and Board members, and their immediate family members, are ineligible.
DEADLINE: April 19, 2020
https://www.pw.org/content/poets_writers_covid19_relief_fund
Artist Relief
INFO: To support artists during the COVID-19 crisis, a coalition of national arts grantmakers have come together to create an emergency initiative to offer financial and informational resources to artists across the United States.
Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19; serve as an ongoing informational resource; and co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, designed by Americans for the Arts, to better identify and address the needs of artists.
To be eligible for a relief grant, applicants must be:
Practicing artists able to demonstrate a sustained commitment to their work, careers, and a public audience;
Experiencing dire financial emergencies due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
21 years of age or older;
Provide a W9 and Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)—we will collect this information after you’ve been notified of your selection;
Residing and working in the U.S. for the last two years;
Not a full-time employee, board member, director, officer, or immediate family member of any of the coalition partners;
Not previously awarded a relief grant from this fund.
DEADLINE: April 23, 2020
https://www.artistrelief.org/apply
MAURICE SENDAK EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND
The Maurice Sendak Foundation / NYFA
INFO: The Maurice Sendak Foundation has seeded a program that will provide one-time grants of up to $2,500 to children's picture book artists and writers.
The Maurice Sendak Foundation (MSF) has partnered with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) to launch an emergency relief grant program to support children’s picture book artists and writers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. The program will distribute unrestricted grants, up to $2,500 apiece, to artists who have experienced financial hardship from loss of income as a direct result of the crisis. The program is open to children’s picture book artists and writers over the age of 21 in the United States and territories.
MSF, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is devoted to promoting greater public interest in and understanding of the literary, visual, and performing arts. MSF has granted $100,000 to NYFA to begin the program; the initial goal for the fund is $250,000 with hopes that it will expand. Those interested in donating to the fund may do so here.
GRANT TIMELINE:
Grant Launch: Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 10:00 AM EDT
Application Opens: Thursday, April 23, 2020, 1:00 PM EDT
Application Closes: Once 600 applications have been received
Application Review: Thursday, April 23-Monday, May 4, 2020
Applicants Notified: By May 15, 2020
https://www.nyfa.org/Content/Show/Maurice-Sendak-Emergency-Relief-Fund?mc_cid=f1e2566372&mc_eid=9e9f55163d
Writers’ Emergency Fund
PEN America
INFO: PEN America is an organization of writers and their allies, and that solidarity is never more important than during a global crisis such as we face in the coronavirus pandemic. PEN America is expanding its long-standing Writers’ Emergency Fund as part of our efforts to support the literary community at a time when the health and livelihoods of so many are at risk. We recognize that there are writers who no longer have access to any of the ways in which they have supported themselves, and that this has happened very suddenly and will last for a period none of us can predict. In response, PEN America will distribute grants of $500 to $1,000 based on applications that demonstrate an inability to meet an acute financial need, especially one resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. We have developed a new streamlined process for the duration of this crisis, and expect to be able to review and respond to applications within 14 days.
To be eligible, applicants must be based in the United States, be a professional writer, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address an emergency situation. The fund is limited, and not every application can be supported.
The Writers’ Emergency Fund is intended to assist fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. The following guidelines are used in evaluating professional credentials:
Publication of one or more books.
Multiple essays, short stories, or poems in literary anthologies or literary journals (either online or in print) in the last two years.
A full-length play, performed in a theater of more than 250 seats by a professional theater company. Productions in academic settings qualify if not a student at the time of the production.
Production of a motion picture project or a segment of television.
Employment as a full-time professional journalist, columnist, or critic or a record of consistent publication on a freelance basis in a range of outlets during the last two years.
Contracted forthcoming books, essays, short stories, poems, or articles for which the name of the publisher can be provided.
Other qualifications that support the applicant’s professional identity as a writer.
Writers do not have to be Members of PEN America to receive a grant, but all recipients of emergency funding will be given a complimentary one-year membership to PEN America.
https://pen.org/writers-emergency-fund/
COVID-19 EMERGENCY GRANT
Dramatists Guild Foundation
INFO: It is vital to support writers in times of need so that they can get back to doing what they do best. DGF provides emergency financial assistance to individual playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists in dire need of funds due to severe hardship or unexpected illness.
If you are a writer in need, we can help.
https://dgf.org/programs/grants/grants-for-writers/
The Authors League Fund
The Authors League
INFO: The Authors League Fund helps authors, dramatists, journalists, and poets. Recipients of Authors League Fund assistance must be career writers with a substantial body of work in one of more of the following categories:
Book authors with at least one title published by an established traditional publisher. Authors with multiple titles are given priority.
Dramatists whose full-length plays have been produced in mid-size or large theaters and/or published by established dramatic presses. [See notes above concerning COVID-19 income loss.]
Journalists, critics, essayists, short story writers, and poets with a substantial body of work in periodicals with a national or broad circulation. Whether print or online, these periodicals must have strong editorial oversight and a sizable readership. This category does not include copywriting, blogging, public relations, and writing for non-periodical websites and corporate clients.
The Fund does not typically assist self-published writers unless they have a record of critical and financial success with their publications.
While it is not necessary that the applicant subsists solely on his or her income from writing, or have published in recent years, the applicant’s status as a professional writer is vital. Please list awards, fellowships, and other forms of recognition in your application.
The Authors League Fund helps writers living in the United States, regardless of citizenship, and American writers living abroad.
https://authorsleaguefund.org/apply/
Writers Emergency Assistance Fund
American Society of Journalists and Authors
INFO: Coronavirus-related WEAF funds are only available to those who cannot work because they are currently ill or caring for someone who is ill. Funds are not available to those who have lost work because publishers and/or clients are no longer assigning due of the pandemic. All other guidelines outlined below still apply.
ASJA is receiving four times the number of WEAF applications as usual. Please review our guidelines carefully before applying. We want to help as many applicants as possible, and our WEAF review team is made up of professional freelance writers who are also struggling during this crisis. Please be cognizant of our staff and volunteer time, by considering carefully whether or not your application meets our criteria.
The Writers Emergency Assistance Fund helps established freelance writers who, because of illness, disability, a natural disaster, or an extraordinary professional crisis are unable to work. A writer need not be a member of ASJA to qualify for a grant. However, applicants must establish a record of past professional freelance nonfiction writing over a sustained period of years, which means qualifications generally similar to those of ASJA members. WEAF does not award grants to beginning freelancers seeking funding for writing projects, nor does it fund works-in-progress of any kind.
http://asja.org/For-Writers/WEAF
