When when you find yourself with a big, time-consuming writing project to pursue, your love of words alone might not pay the bills. That’s when writing grants can swoop in to save the day (and your budget).
If you find you enjoy writing grant applications, grant writing for others can be a lucrative niche as well.
Check out these 20 writing grants
Writing grants for women, poets and more
Ready to apply for money to fund your writing? Here are 20 great writing grants for creatives based in the United States.
1. Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grants
These grants of up to $2,500 are available to women and transgender artists and cultural producers based in Greater Philadelphia, whose work emphasizes social change. That means, “social change must be integral to the ideas, beliefs and goals that are woven throughout your [writing] and your process of creating and sharing your art,” and should positively engage the community.
Keep in mind that one key to success for this grant is securing a “Change Partner”: an individual, business, or organization that is connected to your work, and who will endorse your project.
If you are at least 18 years old and live in Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery or Philadelphia counties, you are eligible to apply. However, full-time art students are not eligible. All genres are welcome. Applications must be received by the biannual deadlines, and you can only apply once per grant cycle.
Check out this page for all the details.
2. Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) Awards
If you are a resident of Washington state, 18 years or older and not currently enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree program, this is the grant for you.
The Grants for Artists Project (GAP) awards up to $1,500 annually to 50+ practicing literary and visual artists. Grant money can support the “development, completion or presentation of new work.”
The organization also connects artists to an array of services, including career development, legal support, residencies and continuing education—just to name a few. Keep your eye out for the details here.
3. Bard College Fiction Prize
This writer-in-residence award is an amazing opportunity for an emerging writer under the age of 39 to devote a semester to a fiction project.
The recipient is required to give one public lecture on the campus and to informally meet with Bard students, but the rest of the time is dedicated to their writing project. Besides a sizable $30,000 cash award, the winning writer also gets to be a writer in residence at Bard College for one semester.
Check this page to learn about upcoming deadlines. The application process is very straightforward; no lengthy FAQ pages here.
Applicants should have published at least one book, three copies of which must be submitted with a cover letter explaining their next project and their C.V.
4. Arts Writers Grant Program
If contemporary visual art is your writing area of expertise, you’re in luck. This writing grant funds writers who are passionate and knowledgeable about contemporary art and whose work will broaden the arts writing audience.
Both emerging and established writers can apply for a grant ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 in one of three project types: articles, books and short-form writing. Keep your eye out for the application period to reopen in Spring.
Details are available here.
5. Arizona Artist Research and Development Grant
Arizona writers who want to “advance their artistic practice, expand their creative horizons and deepen the impact of their work” may want to try their luck with this grant, which will be awarded to up to 30 artists across all disciplines this year. The grant’s amount goes up to $5,000 depending on funding.
Applicants whose projects emphasize the “new”—new techniques, new strategies, new ways of engaging communities—are primed for success. Writers should also explicitly state in their applications how their project will impact not just their own artistic practices, but also benefit the larger Arizona community.
The application has numerous demanding parts, so be sure to give yourself time to delve into the guidelines. Learn more here.
6. Kansas City Inspiration Grant
Kansas City writers in the metropolitan area may be awarded between $1,000 and $2,500 for professional development and other budding projects. The regional arts council notes that the highest priority for the grant is to fund projects that significantly advance career development or an artist’s capacity to complete their work—not to fund “business as usual.”
A full proposal, which includes up to six samples of work, is only submitted after an applicant passes this initial phase.
Note that if you request more than $1,500 for your project, matching funds may be required.
Check out the Inspiration Resources page for more information.
7. RISCA Project Grant Projects for Individuals
As with most other state arts council-based grants, this Rhode Island grant is available to writers who ultimately plan to share their work with the public through a reading, performance or another open event. The emphasis on public value is strong with the RI Arts Council, so this grant will best serve socially-minded writing projects.
Individual applicants can request up to $3,000, but be mindful that grants may be only partially funded. If your request is especially sizeable you might consider providing proof that other organizations or individuals have financially invested in your project.
Find application details here.
8. North Carolina Artist Support Grant
North Carolina writers at any stage in their careers are invited to apply for writing grants to fund new or existing projects, with statewide awards ranging from $300 to $5,000. (Grant amounts vary by region.)
Application procedures and deadlines vary depending on your county, so make sure you reach out to the office designated on this page for specific regional details. The guidelines are fairly open-ended, which is good news for writers who want to use the funds for a variety of professional development needs.
9. Awesome Foundation Grant
This grant is as awesome as it sounds.
Winners receive $1,000 with “no strings attached” to pursue their incredible projects, and the foundation and its donors have no say in the finished project.
Chapters of the foundation organized by region or subject review applications and select the grantees. The process is almost unsettlingly simple, but don’t be deterred—this really is a great opportunity.
Check the website for specific information about the application requirements and deadlines for your chapter.
10. The Regional Arts Commission’s Artist Support Grant
This grant, funded by the Regional Arts Commission, provides “direct funds for an individual artist’s projects, needs, or creative opportunities in all artistic disciplines.” The grant ranges from $500 to $3,000 and can be used for project completion, conference fees, rental space, materials, and any other resources that contribute to an artists’ development.
You’ll be eligible for this grant if you’re 19 years or older, a resident of St. Louis City or County and have been for at least one year, and if you’ve created and presented or performed original work to the public.
11. PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship
Since 2001, this annual writing grant of $5,000 has been awarded to an author of children’s or YA fiction. “It has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber and assist a writer at a crucial moment in their career to complete a novel-in-progress.”
To ensure total impartiality of the judging process, your submitted novel-in-progress will be judged blindly, so be sure not to put your name anywhere on your manuscript.
Among other requirements, eligible applicants should have published at least one children’s or YA fiction novel, and it must have been published by a U.S. trade publisher.
Check out the website for more details.
12. Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award
If you’re a writer over the age of 50 and your work has yet to be traditionally published in the children’s literature field, this one is all yours.
Karen and Philip Cushman and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) established this grant for writers in 2013. Cushman considered herself a late bloomer, as her first children’s book wasn’t published until she was 53. This grant is meant to celebrate and encourage writers just like her.
Recipients receive $500 and free tuition to an SCBWI conference anywhere in the world. Plus, the requirements are a breeze: you must be a member of SCBWI and an unpublished writer of 50 years of age or older. Submissions re-open each year on March 1.
13. Massachusetts Artist Fellowship
Artists in Massachusetts specializing in various disciplines can apply to receive a $1,500 award, funded by the Mass Cultural Council, which considers “the work of individual artists to be an essential part of our vital communities.”
The fellowship is only open to artists who are 18 years or older and have been a resident of Massachusetts for at least two years. You must also be prepared to present original work; no interpretations or translations, please.
Although the program has a rolling application process, please note all new applications for Cultural District designation are paused until FY26 as program is internally reviewed and redesigned.
14. C.D. Wright Prize for Poetry
In honor of C.D. Wright’s legacy, The Arkansas International seeks “to award innovative poetry that ‘lives freely and variously and fully engaged with others and the world.’”
Any poet writing in English is eligible to submit, so long as they have not yet published a first book. U.S. citizenship is not a restriction of eligibility. The winner receives $1000 and publication in the Arkansas International. Recent judges have included Hanif Abdurraqib and Shane McCrae.
Submissions open annually at the start of June and close at the end of August.
15. The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship
If you need to set aside some time to focus on your writing, this opportunity might be what you’re looking for.
Administered by Brown University, this fellowship was created with the intention to “provide artists, scholars, and writers with time to complete their work.” Previous fellowships awarded $35,000 to nine mid-career individuals in the fields of Creative Nonfiction and History.
You’ll be eligible if you’ve achieved recognition for one major project, and if you can answer “yes” to these questions.
Check out the website for more information.
16. The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence
This award is “nationally recognized in its role of enhancing the visibility of emerging African-American fiction writers while also expanding the audience for this literature.” The $15,000 cash prize will support the writer as he/she focuses on writing.
To be eligible, you’ll need to be an African-American U.S. citizen with a published work of fiction, and you should be willing to attend the award ceremony in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During your stay, participation in community engagement and educational outreach activities are also expected.
17. Artists 360
Designed to elevate greater Northwest Arkansas artists, Artists 360 provides $7,500 grants “to support creative projects, learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurship skills and build sustainable creative practices, and connections to a dynamic regional artist network.” The four artistic disciplines accepted are visual arts, performing arts, literary arts and traditional arts.
To be eligible, be an artist with an active and current artistic practice, have specialized training in your field, and show you’ve succeeded in the arts through high-quality work and/or contributions to the field.
Find more details here.
18. Saratoga Arts Individual Artist Grants
Writers in the upstate New York State region—Fulton, Montgomery or Saratoga counties, specifically—this grant is for you. Funded by the Saratoga Arts, the Artist Grant focuses on individual artist work to enhance career development, skills and broaden exposure, “while fostering creative, resourceful and inspiring connections between artists and a community.”
Grants of $2,500 will be awarded to artists to create new work and share their creative process with the community. Funding can support art-related supplies and materials needed for the execution of the program, artist fees and other outreach costs.
19. Independently Published Pre-publication Grant
You must be a current SCBWI member when your work is submitted and when the award is announced.
Money from the grant must be used to self-publish your book, including but not limited to:
- Hiring illustrators
- Hiring content editors, proofreaders, and copyeditors
- Hiring book designers
- Book trailers
- Website development
- Printing and shipping costs
- Publishing software
Grants will be awarded based on:
- Quality and professionalism of your synopsis
- Strength of your business plan
Check out the website for more information.
20. Work-in-Progress Awards
To assist children’s book writers and illustrators in the completion of a specific project currently not under contract. Given in the categories of Picture Book Text, Chapter Books/Early Readers, Middle Grade, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction, and Underrepresented Fiction or Nonfiction.
The SCBWI Work-In-Progress (WIP) Award assists children’s book writers and illustrators in the publication of a specific project currently not under contract. One winner per category will be selected. SCBWI reserves the right not to confer this award in any given year.
Submissions open March 1 through March 31. Learn more here.
Looking for more great writing grants and funding options? Check out C. Hope Clark’s fantastic list of opportunities at Funds for Writers.
The original version of this story on writing grants was by Kristen Pope. We update this post regularly so it’s more useful for our readers.
Photo via Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock