Why Every Writer Should Be Applying to Grants, Fellowships and Residencies
Because you deserve to have the time, space and funding to work on the projects that truly matter to you!
Let’s face it: Making a living as a writer is not the easiest thing in the world… and it’s not getting any easier. The publishing industry has been battered in recent decades, and all those glamorous, well-paid magazine writers you see in movies and TV shows (think Carrie Bradshaw making $4/word 20 years ago!) feel so painfully distant from today’s reality. But I’ve spent a lot of time talking with all kinds of writers about how they make a living doing this, and there are in fact many ways to make that happen.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that there’s a particular breed of writer who is incredibly adept at getting their projects funded through grants, fellowships and residencies. From big-ticket opportunities like the National Endowment for the Arts’ $25,000 creative writing fellowships to many smaller grants for $1,000 to $5,000 to fund big reported stories on particular topics — not to mention artist residencies that give writers a beautiful space to live and work for a week or a summer — there are so many great options out there. But of course, they’re competitive, so the trick is knowing how to make yourself stand out from the crowd.
This is why I’m so excited to have Abeer Hoque, who has won fellowships from NEA, the Fulbright Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and others, teaching The Insider’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies at Narratively Academy. In this intensive two-day workshop, Abeer will guide students through how to write compelling and clear statements of purpose, and discuss how to create strong applications for grants, fellowships and artists’ residencies.
UPDATE: This class is now sold out. If you’d like to be alerted next time we offer a session of this class, please email academy@narratively.com to add your name to the wait list.
NEW UPDATE: We’ve added a second session in November!
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