POETRY FOUNDATION GRANTS
Poetry Foundation
DEADLINE: September 4, 2024
INFO: Poetry Foundation’s grant application are now open
I - EQUITY IN VERSE - The Equity in Verse grant category was created in direct response to the June 6, 2020 community letter requesting that the Foundation examine its historic cultural debt to poets of color. These grants are intended to provide support for nonprofit poetry and literary organizations, which includes presses and publications, led and staffed by people of color.
The Poetry Foundation acknowledges that the art, ideas, and labor of BIPOC people are integral to its work and poetry as an art form and that those contributions have gone underrecognized. Honoring the legacy of past BIPOC poets and making space for living and future poets are critical to the Foundation’s evolution.
Grants range in size from $10,000-$100,000, and all grants are for a 12-month period. The Poetry Foundation accepts applications for Equity in Verse grants twice a year (the deadlines are March 1 and September 1).
II - POETRY RY PROGRAMS, PARTNERSHIS, AND INNOVATION - Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grants provide support to nonprofit organizations invested in at least one of the following priorities:
Broadening the audiences for poetry;
Increasing access to poetry;
New collaborations and partnerships in poetry;
Innovations in the field of poetry, including investment in new technologies.
Grants range in size from $10,000-$75,000 and all grants are for a 12-month period. The Poetry Foundation accepts applications for Poetry Programs, Partnerships, and Innovation grants twice a year (the deadlines are March 1 and September 1).
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Winter Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color
Roots. Wounds. Words.
DEADLINE: September 8, 2024
INFO: The Roots. Wounds. Words. Winter Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color is a sacred space wherein BIPOC stories are celebrated, and BIPOC storytellers immersed in liberation. At the Writers’ Retreat, Storytellers receive literary arts instruction offered by award-winning BIPOC writers in the fields of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, speculative fiction, and young adult fiction.
In January 2025, Roots. Wounds. Words. Fellows will commune online where they will workshop their literary art, perform their work, participate in BIPOC-centered healing and liberation modalities, as well as receive literary arts pedagogy from renowned BIPOC storytellers.
To attend this offering, submit an application through our online system. Prior writing experience is insignificant. Whether you’ve attended a writing workshop before or not holds no weight. All applicants are judged on the merits of their full application, which includes an artistic statement, bio, and writing sample.
Our Writers’ Retreat provides BIPOC storytellers with a transformative opportunity to push your pen, strengthen your craft, access literary art professionals, rest and restore, and build the tribe you need to support your writing goals.
The Roots. Wounds. Words. Writers’ Retreat is for Us.
RETREAT LOCATION: Online / Virtual
RETREAT DATES: January 5 - January 11, 2025
TUITION: $1,500 (partial scholarships and payment plans are available)
2025 WINTER WRITERS’ RETREAT FACULTY:
FICTION FACULTY - Jamil Jan Kochai (he/him) is the author of The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award and a winner of the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2023 Clark Fiction Prize. His debut novel 99 Nights in Logar was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Best American Short Stories. His essays have been published at The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Kochai was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He teaches creative writing at California State University, Sacramento.
NONFICTION FACULTY - Nadia Owusu (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based writer and urbanist. Her memoir, Aftershocks, was selected as a best book of 2021 by over a dozen publications, including Time, Vogue, Esquire, and the BBC, and has been translated into five languages. It was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick, named one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, and selected by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai for her Literati book club. Nadia is the winner of a Whiting Award in nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others. She teaches creative writing at Columbia University and at the Mountainview MFA program and is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions.
POETRY FACULTY - porsha olayiwola is a native of chicago who writes, lives and organizes in boston, where she is the current poet laureate. olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the black, woman, and queer diasporas. she is an individual world poetry slam champion and the founder of the roxbury poetry festival. porsha olayiwola is currently teaching in her role as assistant professor of poetry at Emerson College. she is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too. her work can be found in or forthcoming from with triquarterly magazine, black warrior review, the boston globe, essence magazine, redivider, split this rock, the nba, the academy of american poets, netflix, wilderness press, the museum of fine arts and elsewhere.
SPECULATIVE FICTION FACULTY - Andrea Hairston (she/her) is a novelist, playwright, and L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. Novels: Archangels of Funk; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire, Otherwise and Carl Brandon Award winner; Master of Poisons on the 2020 Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy; and Mindscape, Carl Brandon Award winner. Her short fiction appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future; New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color; Trouble the Waters and Lightspeed Magazine. Plays and essays appear in Lonely Stardust.
rootswoundswords.org/2025-winterretreat
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MACDOWELL FELLOWSHIP
MacDowell
DEADLINE: September 10, 2024
INFO: About 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships each year and the sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available to open the residency to the broadest possible community of artists.
MacDowell encourages applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. Any applicant whose proposed project does not fall clearly within one of these artistic disciplines should contact the admissions department for guidance. We aim to be inclusive, not exclusive in our admissions process.
macdowell.org/apply/apply-for-fellowship
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PRINCETON ARTS FELLOWSHIPS
Lewis Center for the Arts
DEADLINE: September 10, 2024 at 11:59pm ET
INFO: Princeton Arts Fellowships, funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, David E. Kelley Society of Fellows in the Arts, and the Maurice R. Greenberg Scholarship Fund, will be awarded to artists whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. Applicants should be early career visual artists, filmmakers, poets, novelists, playwrights, designers, directors and performance artists—this list is not meant to be exhaustive—who would find it beneficial to spend two years teaching and working in an artistically vibrant university community.
Princeton Arts Fellows spend two consecutive academic years (September 1-July 1) at Princeton University and formal teaching is expected. The normal work assignment will be to teach one course each semester subject to approval by the Dean of the Faculty, but fellows may be asked to take on an artistic assignment in lieu of a class, such as directing a play or creating a dance with students. Although the teaching load is light, our expectation is that Fellows will be full and active members of our community, committed to frequent and engaged interactions with students during the academic year.
A $92,000 a year stipend is provided. Fellowships are not intended to fund work leading to an advanced degree. One need not be a U.S. citizen to apply. Holders of Ph.D. degrees from Princeton are not eligible to apply.
Past recipients of the Hodder Fellowship and individuals who have had a sustained and continuous relationship with Princeton University are not eligible to apply. Those who have had an occasional and sporadic relationship with Princeton may apply.
To apply, please submit a curriculum vitae, contact information for three references (should the search committee choose to contact references, please do not request letters or have letters sent in advance of a request from the search committee), and work samples (i.e., a writing sample, images of your work, video links to performances, etc.). Please also submit a 750-word proposal that includes how you would hope to use the two years of the fellowship to develop your work, how you would contribute to Princeton’s arts community through teaching and/or production, and how you have encouraged diversity and inclusion and furthered accessibility in your artistic practice, teaching, and/or research.
Applicants can only apply for the Princeton Arts Fellowship twice in a lifetime.
arts.princeton.edu/fellowships/princeton-arts-fellowship/
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2025 Writer - Winter / Spring Residency
Jentel Artist Residency
DEADLINE: September 15, 2024 at noon MST
APPLICATION FEE: $30
ELIGIBILITY Residencies are intended as professional development opportunities for visual artists in all creative disciplines and writers in creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Proposals for self-directed, creative residencies must be compatible with available working studio spaces, facilities, and resources. Artistic merit and promise are the basis for selections. Mature as well as emerging artists are encouraged to apply. Individuals enrolled in a degree program at the time of application are ineligible for residency. Artists and writers over age 25 residing in the United States and US citizens abroad are eligible. Four visual artists and two writer residencies are awarded each session.
DURATION OF RESIDENCY All residencies start on the 15th of each month and end on the 7th of the next month. No exceptions, please.
CHARACTER STATEMENTS: During the application process, Jentel requests contact information for three (3) individuals who know them on a day-to-day personal basis, are familiar with their creative work habits, and have the ability to engage congenially in small groups. Jentel will be considering these applicants for a residency award. Submittable will generate an email to the three (3) individuals with a link to submit a brief character statement on behalf of the applicant. (Jentel does not accept statements from Inter-Folio.)
AWARDS A rotating panel of experts and professionals in the arts and humanities independently reviews applications and supporting materials. Final awards of residencies are at the discretion of Jentel. In some instances, artists and writers are invited to participate without submitting an application.
COUPLES Couples who are artists or writers may apply individually, understanding that one partner may be accepted and the other may not. Each artist or writer accepted for a residency will be offered a separate studio or workspace. Jentel is unable to invite spouses or partners to accompany artists in residence under any other circumstances.
COLLABORATORS Collaborators may be accepted for a residency; however, both need to submit separate applications along with a joint proposal. Please indicate in the proposal the requirements for the workspace.
REAPPLICATION After five years have lapsed, previous residents may reapply for a residency by submitting a new application with new work and new character statement contacts. Artists who have applied previously may reapply by submitting a new application and a new work sample.
LOCATION The Jentel Artist Residency Program is located on a working cattle ranch 20 miles southeast of Sheridan (Population nearing 20,000). Set in the rolling sage hills along Piney Creek, numerous buildings cluster one of the original ranch houses, which serve as a reception center. Spectacular views of the Big Horn Mountains are set against an ever-changing backdrop of light and sky.
FACILITIES Residencies provide time, space, and facilities for research, experimentation, and production of work and ideas in the visual and literary arts. Residents are at liberty to structure their own time and activity. They may choose to maintain their privacy or to engage with other residents and activities at Jentel. Each resident is offered separate living accommodations and workspace. Large, well-lighted studios are equipped with running water and adequate light for late work. Writers need to bring their own writing materials and laptops. Areas inside and outside are reserved for residents. Common spaces include a library, a recreation area, and a great room. A large kitchen adjacent to the living area may be used for food and meal preparation. A weekly stipend is provided to help defray personal expenses.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT A monthly stipend is distributed in three (3) separate installments of $100 at the end of each week in residence. Residents are responsible for their own personal living expenses, food and beverage, supplies, telephone charges, and any expenses related to the production of work during the residency. Travel and shipping expenses to and from the Jentel Artist Residency Program are also the responsibility of the resident.
FEES: There are no fees charged for the residency. The receipt of a $100 reservation deposit is due within two weeks of notification of the residency award and confirms the residency. The reservation deposit is returned during orientation at the residency. When an artist or writer cancels a residency reservation less than two months prior to the beginning of the residency, they waive the return of the reservation deposit. Application fees are non-refundable.
CHILDREN Accommodations for children and family members are not provided.
PETS Pets are not allowed at Jentel.
VISITORS Accommodations for visitors are available in Sheridan, 20 miles northwest of Jentel.
SMOKING/VAPING Jentel is a vape and smoke-free environment.
PRIVACY All application materials and work samples are confidential and retained for the use of the Jentel Artist Residency Program only.
COMMUNITY Although no services are expected of residents during their stay, interaction within the community is welcomed and graciously supported.
Questions?
Please see the Application/FAQs on the website: www.jentelarts.org.
jentelartistresidency.submittable.com/submit
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VCCA RESIDENCY
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
DEADLINE: September 15, 2024
APPLICATION FEE: $30
INFO: Residencies can be transformative to an artist’s process and the effect on an artist’s career profound. A residency at VCCA gives artists the time and space to explore and go deeper into their work. Away from the constraints of “the real world” and in an accepting environment of talented peers, one can dream and create with the feeling that anything is possible.
VCCA’s Mt. San Angelo location in Amherst, Virginia, typically hosts 360 artists each year in residencies of varying lengths (no minimum; up to six weeks) with flexible scheduling. A residency at Mt. San Angelo includes a private bedroom with private en-suite bath, a private individual studio, three prepared meals a day, and access to a community of more than 20 other artists in residence.
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, VCCA is surrounded by natural wonders and hiking trails. Many local sites and additional inspiration can be found in short drives to Lynchburg (20 minutes), Charlottesville (1 hour), Roanoke (1.5 hours), or Richmond (2 hours).
SELECTION PROCESS: VCCA Fellows are selected by peer review on the basis of professional achievement or promise of achievement in their respective fields. Separate review panels are created for each category (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting/screenwriting, children’s literature, performance, film/video, book arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, music composition, etc.). Panelists undergo periodic review and rotate regularly to ensure VCCA admission decisions are guided by high caliber artists who represent a diversity of styles and tastes.
All VCCA residency and fellowship applications are accepted online via SlideRoom. The standard application fee is $30. If the application fee presents a significant barrier to application, artists should reach out to Artists Services at vcca@vcca.com to request an application fee waiver at least five days before the deadline.
FELLOWSHIPS / FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: A variety of fully-funded fellowship opportunities are available at each application deadline. In addition, significant financial assistance is available throughout the year.
vcca.com/apply/residencies-at-vcca/
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2025 Guggenheim Fellowships
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
DEADLINE: September 17, 2024 by 11:59pm ET
INFO: Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors.
Fellowships are awarded through an annual competition open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada. Candidates must apply to the Guggenheim Foundation in order to be considered.
The Foundation receives approximately 3,000 applications each year. No one who applies is guaranteed success in the competition and there is no prescreening; all applications are reviewed. Approximately 175 Fellowships are awarded each year.
During the rigorous selection process, applicants will first be pooled with others working in the same field, and examined by experts in that field. The work of artists will be reviewed by artists, that of scientists by scientists, that of historians by historians, and so on. The Foundation has a network of several hundred advisers, who either meet at the Foundation offices to look at applicants’ work, or receive application materials to read offsite. These advisers, all of whom are Guggenheim Fellows from previous years, then submit reports critiquing and ranking the applications in their respective fields. Their recommendations are then forwarded to and weighed by a Committee of Selection, which then determines the number of awards to be made in each area. Occasionally, no application in a given area is considered strong enough to merit a Fellowship.
We guarantee our advisers and Committee of Selection members, as well as those who submit letters of reference, absolute confidentiality. Therefore, under no circumstances will the reasons for the rejection of an application be provided.
The Committee of Selection then forwards its recommendations to the Board of Trustees for final approval. The successful candidates in the United States and Canada competition are announced in early April.
FAQs:
What are Guggenheim Fellowships?
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants awarded to around 175 selected individuals every year. The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. As such, grants are made freely, without any special conditions attached to them; Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work. The United States Internal Revenue Service, however, does require the Foundation to ask for reports from its Fellows at the end of their Fellowship terms.
How does the Foundation define “advanced professional”?
The Foundation understands advanced professionals to be those who as writers, scholars, or scientists have a significant record of publication, or as artists, playwrights, filmmakers, photographers, composers, or the like, have a significant record of exhibition or performance of their work.
How does the Foundation define “performing arts”?
The Foundation understands the performing arts to be those in which an individual interprets work created by others. Accordingly, the Foundation will provide Fellowships to composers but not conductors, singers, or instrumentalists; choreographers but not dancers; filmmakers, playwrights, and performance artists who create their own work but not actors or theater directors.
What is the amount of a grant?
The amounts of grants vary, and the Foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project. Working with a fixed annual budget, the Foundation strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible, taking into consideration the Fellows’ other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Members of the teaching profession receiving sabbatical leave on full or part salary are eligible for appointment, as are those holding other fellowships and appointments at research centers.
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2025 Periplus Fellowship
Periplus Collective
DEADLINE: September 20, 2024, at 11:59 pm ET
INFO: Applications for the 2025 Periplus Fellowship are open!
Periplus is a community of writers who provide mentorship and guidance to early-career BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) writers in the United States so they can achieve their own professional and artistic goals.
During the year-long fellowship, mentors and fellows meet monthly to discuss various topics, which might include, for example, building writing into a daily routine, making money as a writer, considering craft concerns like structuring a book or magazine article, and approaching career-related problems like finding an agent, pitching magazines, or applying to graduate school.
There are also opportunities for Fellows to engage with the broader Periplus community such as planning panels, talks, meet-ups, readings or other events; attending those events; sharing support and resources; and doing whatever else they think would be useful and interesting.
bit.ly/periplusfaq
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Call For Artists; The Voodoo (Album) Experience
Black Girl Saturday School
DEADLINE: September 21, 2024
INFO: The Voodoo (Album) Experience is an immersive experience that honors D’Angelo’s second album, the era that gave birth to the album, and the sensual and transformative power of music. Spread across (1-3) venues, it features visual art installations, community conversations and reflections, a dinner party, panel discussions, film screening, and jam session, where attendees can participate in the collective act(s) of remembering, celebrating, reliving, and re-imagining D’Angelo’s Voodoo album, 25 years later.
Inspired by the 13 tracks on the Voodoo album, we invite your proposals for the artistic interpretation of a single song or the entire album to be exhibited at The Voodoo (Album) Experience in January 2025! Artists of all genders are encouraged to apply.
CRITERIA: As you listen to the album and craft your vision, please consider how your work will honor the album, the era that gave birth to the album, and/or the sensual and transformative power of D'Angelo's music.
TIMELINE:
Announcement: October 2024
Opening Ceremony: January 24th - 25th - 26th, 2025
LOCATION: Baltimore, MD
VENUE: TBA
SELECTION PROCESS:
Jury Panel: Comprising experienced artists and curators.
Criteria: Originality, thematic relevance, and technical skill.
Interested artists should submit an application as soon as possible, up to September 21, 2024.
ABOUT BLACK GIRL SATURDAY SCHOOL®:
Founded in 2020 as the place where the study of Black girls’ and women’s lives is valued, appreciated, cultivated, immersive, healing, restorative, grounding, available, continual, fun, and more. We host Jam Sessions, Studies, and Workshops using art and our lives as the study guide. Black Girl Saturday School® is a space for Black Women:
to safely and with care, journey back to their Black Girlhood with the expectation of finding brilliance
to freely explore and reflect on our sensual lives through language, history, art, music and culture
to cultivate a personal wisdom that we can activate in our day-to-day lives
If you have any questions, please email: principal@blackgirlsaturdayschool.com
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THE SARABANDE CHAPBOOK PRIZE
Sarabande Books
DEADLINE: September 30, 2024
SUBMISSION FEE: $25
INFO: In celebration of Sarabande’s 30th anniversary, the inaugural Sarabande Chapbook Prize will be awarded to two winners from our 2024 submission period. The prize includes $1,000, publication, and a standard royalty contract.
GENRE: We’re looking for traditional poetry chapbooks and hybrid/experimental projects. (For examples of hybrid projects we’ve loved, see Hotel Almighty, Team Photograph, Thot, Bright, White Bull, A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause, and more.)
ELIGIBILITY: This Sarabande Chapbook Prize is open to any poet or writer of English. Employees and board members of Sarabande are not eligible. Translations and previously published collections are not eligible. Works that have previously appeared in part in magazines or in anthologies may be included.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Manuscript must be anonymous
Manuscript must be typed, standard font, 12 pt., paginated
Between 20-30 pages, single spaced
Must be accompanied by a $25 submission fee
Must be submitted electronically through Submittable
Multiple submissions are permitted if submitted separately, each with a submission fee. Edits to submissions will not be permitted, but any publications resulting from this contest will undergo a full editorial and copyedit. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted, but please withdraw your manuscript if accepted elsewhere.
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Gold Line Press Chapbook Contests
Gold Line Press
DEADLINE: September 30, 2024
ENTRY FEE: $15 (however, free submissions are availble for BIPOC writers and writers facing financial hardship)
INFO: Gold Line Press, a student-run press housed in the Creative Writing and Literature PhD program at the University of Southern California, seeks submissions for its annual contests.
They seek submissions for chapbook-length (30-page max for prose and 5000-15000 words for prose) projects in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The judges are 'Pemi Aguda (fiction), Jaquira Díaz (nonfiction), and Diannely Antigua (poetry).
PRIZE: The winner in each genre will be published by Gold Line Press, receive a $750 prize, and 50 author copies of their published chapbook.
goldlinepress.submittable.com/submit
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: A SPECIAL ISSUE ON MIGRATION
Michigan Quarterly Review
DEADLINE: October 1, 2024
INFO: MQR is calling for submissions for a special issue on the theme of migration, with particular interest in texts that record, analyze, re-document/re-interpret, and ruminate on the various aspects of displacement and erasure at the convergence of global instabilities caused by war, economic pressures, political instability, racial/ethnic/religious/gender hostility, and/or climate change.
We are particularly interested in more experimental or innovative writings that subvert and re-contextualize common understanding around themes of documentation, statelessness, migration, and/or asylum/refugee status as it pertains to the lived stories that detail the physical, emotional, and/or psychological consequences of those who are deported, denied: citizenship, permanent resident status, asylum, temporary protected status; and/or those forced to live in severe states of legal uncertainty after arrest such as indefinite detention without recourse for a trial. We are also looking for texts from the lived realities of people (or their descendents) displaced from their native countries such as Palestine, and/or who currently reside in their native country whose borders are the active sites of contestation; this includes indigenous people of the U.S and elsewhere whose land, citizenship, and autonomy has been stolen.
We welcome texts in all genres (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and researched essays). In addition to original, previously unpublished works in all genres, we also welcome collaborative works, translations, and visual works that can be presented in print or digitally on MQR Online.
GUEST EDITOR: Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
GUIDELINES:
The issue will be published in Spring 2025.
Maximum length for articles, essays and works of fiction is 7,000 words.
Poetry submissions must not exceed 10 pages.
If Submittable is not accessible to you, please email mqr@umich.edu with your concern.