PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative 2022, part of the PEN America Writers Emergency Fund, offers grants for writers in the United States
PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative 2022
PEN America is an organization of writers and their allies, and that solidarity is never more important than when members of our literary community face crises. Writing can be a solitary, economically fragile undertaking made even more precarious by unemployment, financial downturns, health problems, and other challenges. PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative, part of the PEN America Writers Emergency Fund, offers grants for writers in the United States facing acute financial need following an emergency situation.
Click here to get fast updates on literary contest, news, magazine submission and other available opportunities for writers
Editor's Pick
- Quramo Writers'Prize 2022
- Wakini Kuria Prize For Children's Literature 2022
- African Teen Writers Award 2022
- African Liberty Writing Fellowship Program 2022
- African Writers Award 2022
- Waterson Desert Writing Prize 2022
- Iowa Scholarship 2022
- P.E.N America Writers Aid Initiative 2022
- Writers' Digest Contest 2022
- Ella T. Scholarship 2022
- Bars Fiction Prize For Young Writers 2022
- Jack London Young Writers Contest 2022
- UNESCO City Of Literature Prize 2022
- Our Voices Our Stories Award 2022
- Vweda Chadwick Poetry Prize 2022
- Jacklyn Potter Young Poets Award 2022
- Writers Of The Future Contest 2022
The U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is intended to assist fiction and nonfiction 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. The fund is limited, and not every application can be supported. Grant decisions are made on a periodic basis by a volunteer committee of literary peers in consultation with PEN America staff, using the following guidelines to evaluate professional credentials:
Publication of one or more books. (Writers who are only self-published or published by a press that charges for publication are not eligible.)
Multiple essays, short stories, or poems appearing in literary anthologies or literary journals (either online or in print) in the last two years.
- A full-length play, performed in a theater by a professional theater company. Productions in academic settings qualify if the author is 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.
- The U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is not intended to subsidize writing-related expenses, such as equipment, printing, shipping, travel, or publicity services. 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 PEN America membership.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and will be reviewed on or about the following dates in 2021 and 2022, subject to change:
October 1, 2021
February 1, 2022
April 1, 20222
June 1, 2022
August 1, 2022
October 1, 2022
December 1, 2022
PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is made possible by generous support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, the Lannan Foundation, The Haven Foundation, PEN America Members, and other donors. Questions may be addressed to writersfund@pen.org.
%20(1).jpeg)
.png)
%20(3).jpeg)
COMMENTS