WRITING RETREAT FOR WOMEN OF COLOR
Jack Jones Literary Arts
INFO: Jack Jones Literary Arts is hosting its first annual writing retreat at the Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, AR. This two-week retreat will be held October 16–30, 2017, and is open exclusively to women of color. National Book Award finalist, Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, is joining us as our Writer-in-Residence for week one, and Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow and NEA award winner, Angel Nafis, author of BlackGirl Mansion, will join us as Writer-in-Residence for week two.
As part of the retreat experience, Jack Jones is featuring daily one hour Skype master classes with agents, editors and acclaimed women in publishing to promote networking, learning and engagement. These sessions are totally optional for retreat participants.
The retreat rate is $1050.00 for the two weeks and includes individual writing suites with bedroom, private bath, writing area, wifi, air conditioning, mini fridges, coffee makers, and all meals are provided.
Professional and emerging women writers of color at work on book projects are eligible for residencies. Students who are enrolled in a degree program are ineligible for a residency. Unfortunately, the Dairy Hollow grounds do not support wheelchairs or walkers. We are making every effort to secure a location for 2018 that is both cost-effective and accessible.
To apply to the Jack Jones Literary Arts writing retreat, please fill out our online application. The application includes a project proposal, a reference and the writing sample.
They will offer nine fully-funded scholarship opportunities, a travel stipend and admissions fee reimbursements. Supporting documentation will need to be submitted at the time of application.
APPLICATION FEE: $25
IMPORTANT DATES:
- Deadline: May 1, 2017
- Notification: Mailed out on June 1, 2017
- Retreat: October 16 - 30, 2017
jackjonesliteraryarts.com/the-retreat/
EMERGING VOICES FELLOWSHIP
PEN Center USA
INFO: The Emerging Voices Fellowship is a literary mentorship that aims to provide new writers who are isolated from the literary establishment with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to launch a professional writing career.
LITERARY MENTORSHIP BENEFITS
By the end of the Emerging Voices Fellowship, a writer will leave with:
- Seven months of guidance from a professional mentor and written notes on their current writing project.
- An author photo and bio.
- A logline—the short summation of the project in progress.
- A clear action plan for finishing this project.
- Writing life, and craft tips, from notable visiting authors.
- An editing guide from a professional copy editor.
- Insider knowledge of publishing from agents, publishers, and editors.
- An individualized submission guide for literary journals, agents, residencies, and fellowships.
- Improved reading technique from a professional voice coach.
- Public reading experience for a variety of audiences.
- An understanding of how to be an effective workshop participant.
- Lifetime membership in PEN Center USA.
- An introduction to the Los Angeles literary community.
FELLOWSHIP COMPONENTS
The seven-month fellowship includes:
PROFESSIONAL MENTORSHIP: Emerging Voices Mentors are carefully chosen from PEN Center USA’s membership and from professional writers based in Los Angeles. The Mentor-Fellow relationship is expected to challenge the fellow's work and compel significant creative progress. Over the course of the fellowship, Emerging Voices Fellows and Mentors should meet three times in person, and be in contact at least once a month. In these three meetings, Mentors will offer written feedback on the Emerging Voices Fellows’ work in progress. Authors who have been mentors in the past include Ron Carlson, Harryette Mullen, Chris Abani, Ramona Ausubel, Meghan Daum, and Sherman Alexie.
CLASSES AT THE UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS’ PROGRAM: Participants will attend two free courses (a 12-week writing course and a one-day workshop) at UCLA Extension, donated by the Writers’ Program. Program Manager will assist the Emerging Voices Fellows with course selection.
AUTHOR EVENINGS: Every Monday, fellows will meet with a visiting author, editor or publisher and ask questions about craft. Fellows must read each visiting author's book before the evening. A schedule of Author Evenings is distributed at the first Emerging Voices orientation meeting.
Click here for info for the Emerging Voices Author Evening Series, which is open to the public.
MASTER CLASSES: After completing the UCLA Extension Writers' Program courses, Emerging Voices Fellows will enroll in a Master Class. The Master Class is a genre-specific workshop with a professional writer that affords fellows the opportunity to exchange feedback on their works in progress. The 2017 Master Class Instructors are Alex Espinoza (fiction and nonfiction), and F. Douglas Brown (poetry).
VOLUNTEER PROJECT: All Emerging Voices Fellows are expected to complete a 25-hour volunteer project that is relevant to the literary community.
VOICE INSTRUCTION CLASS: The Fellowship will provide a one-day workshop with Dave Thomas, a professional voice actor. The Emerging Voices Fellows will read their work in a recording studio and receive instruction on reading their work publicly.
PUBLIC READINGS: Fellows will participate in three public readings, The Welcome Party, Tongue & Groove Salon, and the Final Reading. Fellows have read in various venues and events including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Silver Lake Jubilee, Skylight Bookstore, The Standard, Downtown LA, and Hotel Café. The fellowship culminates in a Final Reading showcasing the progress each fellow has made in his or her work.
STIPEND: The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend, given in $500 increments.
The Emerging Voices Fellowship runs from January to July. Participants need not be published, but the fellowship is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their writing.
APPLICATION PERIOD: Opens May 1, 2017.
penusa.org/programs/emerging-voices
2017 WHITING CREATIVE NONFICTION GRANT
Whiting Foundation
INFO: The Whiting Foundation is now accepting submissions for this year’s Creative Nonfiction Grant. Encouraged by the range and quality of submissions in its inaugural year, the Whiting Foundation will award up to six grants in the fall of 2017.
All creative nonfiction writers under contract with a publisher and at least two years into their contract are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be US citizens or residents. Whiting welcomes submissions for works of history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, the sciences, philosophy, criticism, food or travel writing, and personal essays, among other categories. Courtney Hodell, Director of Writers’ Programs at the Foundation, comments, “We’re looking for nonfiction that stirs us and makes us think; we want to encourage writers to take on the mapping of complex and nuanced ideas that can’t be explored in any other form, and to express these ideas with all the beauty and intensity they can muster. Such books will only become more crucial to the life of our culture in the years ahead.”
AWARD: $40,000
DEADLINE: May 1, 2017
whiting.org/awards/content/whiting-creative-nonfiction-grant
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Spectacle
INFO: The Spectacle is currently open to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions from traditionally underrepresented voices, including but not limited to LGBTQ+ writers, writers of color, indigenous writers, people with disabilities, and women.
DEADLINE: May 15, 2017
thespectacle.submittable.com/submit
EMERGING WRITER’S CONTEST
Ploughshares
INFO: The Emerging Writer's Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book.
The 2017 contest judges are Garth Greenwell (fiction), Meghan Daum (nonfiction), and Natalie Diaz (poetry).
Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words
Poetry: 3-5 pages
AWARD: The winner in each genre will be awarded $2,000 and will be published in the Winter 2017-18 issue of Ploughshares.
SUBMISSION FEE: $24, which is waived if the submitter is a current subscriber. The fee is:
DEADLINE: May 15, 2017 at noon EST. The winners will be announced in mid-September, 2017.
pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/guidelines
NEW VOICES WRITING COMPETITION: PAKISTAN
The Missing Slate
INFO: The Missing Slate announces its New Voice Writing Competition for Pakistani writers writing in English. They seek work that is original, thought-provoking, well-written, and well-articulated with a voice that can speak to an international readership and characters they can empathize with and care about.
Submitters must be located in Pakistan and have a local bank account to receive prize money.
The competition will be judged by Sabyn Javeri, author of ‘Nobody Killed Her’ (HarperCollins, 2017).
AWARD: A RS20,000 first prize with two runners-up of RS5,000 each. the winning story will be published as story of the week and the winning writer will be interviewed by one of our senior editors.
DEADLINE: May 15, 2017 (11.59PM Pakistan time)
themissingslate.com/new-voices/
ARTS WRITERS GRANT PROGRAM
The Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation
INFO: The Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant supports writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art.
The program issues awards directly to individual authors for articles, blogs, books, new and alternative media, and short-form writing projects. It supports a broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art, from general-audience criticism to academic scholarship.
Writers who meet the program's eligibility requirements are invited to apply in the following categories:
- Articles
- Blogs
- Books
- New and Alternative Media
- Short-Form Writing
DEADLINE: May 17, 2017
artswriters.org/application/guidelines
FLASH FICTION CONTEST
Masters Review
INFO: Masters Review is looking for flash fiction by emerging writers. Stories must be under 1,000 words.
AWARD:
- First Place: $2000, publication on the Masters Review site, and recognition in Poets & Writers Magazine
- Second Place: $200, publication, and recognition in Poets & Writers
- Third Place: $100, publication, and recognition in Poets & Writers
SUBMISSION FEE: $20
DEADLINE: May 31, 2017
mastersreview.com/flash-fiction-contest/
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: GLOBAL DYSTOPIAS
Boston Review
INFO: Special call from Boston Review fiction editor Junot Díaz:
Over the last decades dystopian narratives have proliferated to the point where they seem to have become our default mode for conceptualizing the future. But dystopias are not merely fantasies of a minatory future; they offer critically important reflection upon our present. If (as Tom Moylan has argued) traditional dystopias crafted cognitive maps of the terrors of the twentieth century, what cognitive maps does our current dystopian turn provide us of our turbulent global present?
Throughout 2017 BostonReview.net will feature stories, essays, and interviews on the theme of global dystopias. The project will culminate in a special print issue in the fall of 2017.
They are seeking essays, interviews, and fiction from writers around the globe that engage the theme of dystopia. Nonfiction, personal essay, genre fiction (SF, fantasy, horror, Afrofuturist, slipstream), and work that resides across/between genres are welcome.
Submissions might explore, but are not limited to:
- Inequality / precarity
- The Global South
- Climate change
- Global democracy
- Civic media and civic imaginaries
- Afrofuturism
- The War on Terror
- International politics and speculative futures
- Post-humanisms
- The future of females
- Gendered violence
- Radical futurities
SUBMISSION FEE: $3
DEADLINE: N/A