Grants for writing.

[sugarz]

Hi everyone, I have a few questions for you. Has anyone here ever gotten a grant for writing a novel? Where can a person find a grant to write? What if the novel never gets published? What is the grant to be used for? What do you have to give back (hardly anything is free, right)?

I've been working on a novel and it was going slowly until I quit my job. Now it is flying along great and I'm getting so creative because I've cut the extra stress out of my life. But unfortunately by savings has been dwindling down and I don't know how I feel about the starving artist scenario. I thought that if I can get a grant, I could finish my book and get it published before I return to the work force.

Any ideas?

 

[demetrio]

You may be able to recieve a writing fellowship award or some such thing, but you would need to already be involved with some sort of writing already. I think you would have an extremely hard time finding a grant/award to write a novel without having previously produced and published works available.

I won't flame...though Im tempted

 

[Eugen]

Hi Sugarz,

I agree with Demetrio. Most grants are only available for published authors of traditionally published prolific work, and usually if they are undergoing financial difficulties of some sort. If you belonged to a society of authors, they normally would publish a listing of such grants and make it available to you as part of your membership. However, there may be other awards available, also best obtained from one such society else do a random google check!

 

[sugarz]

Thanks fo the help. I guess I'm going to have to enter a contest, but I hate to do that because it will take me away from my real work.

I guess there's no rest for the weary!

 

[Cathy C]

If you have a major bookstore (one with lots of floors and detailed sections), look for a reference text called "The Annual Register of Grant Support." I've got the 2003 version, and there's a whole section for literature. But I'll warn you -- generally an actual GRANT is only given to an author of a particular nationality (or religion), for research on a book of historical significance in a particular region, or to assist with medical expenses for the disabled writer. Research takes time and money, and it helps to cover some of that. Grants for living expenses while writing a fiction novel are few and far between. There are more prizes than grants, as Eugen said. But look for the Annual Register. It's really expensive, which is why I suggest finding it on the shelf. Then you can look it over to see if there's anything worth buying it for.

Here are a few general literature grants that accept fiction for you to Google:

Carnegie Fund for Authors
Friends of American Writers
Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction
National Endowment for Advancement of the Arts

Good luck!

Cathy