Women Who Submit offers two grants to members that may be used for submission fees or attending a writing conference, workshop, residency etc.
1. Ashaki M. Jackson No Barriers Grant
The Ashaki M. Jackson No Barriers Grant offers funding to our members on a quarterly basis to help offset submission fee costs. While much of the literary landscape supports “pay to play” models, Women Who Submit believes minimizing barriers, such as submission fees and other financial hardships, is central to the pursuit of gender parity and representation in literary publishing.
Funds are awarded in conjunction with our quarterly public workshops. Members are welcomed to request between $20-$100. During Covid, these fees may go towards writer relief. This grant is open to members of the Los Angeles headquarters. To become a member you can join a “New Member Orientation” on the second Saturday of February, May, August, or November.
About Ashaki M. Jackson:
Ashaki M. Jackson is a cofounder of Women Who Submit and served as leader in the organization for over nine years. Her dedication to minimizing barriers for our writers established WWS as an organization that offers free workshops and support all year round. And it was her vision that instituted a No Fee standard across our chapters as the Chapters Director. We thank her for enriching our commitment to women and non-binary writers.
Ashaki M. Jackson is the author of two chapter-length books – Surveillance (Writ Large Press) and Language Lesson (Miel). Jackson is an alumna of Cave Canem and VONA. She serves on the VIDA: Women in Literary Arts executive board. As part of Los Angeles’s literary community, she has served in mentor and administrative capacities with WriteGirl, 826LA and PEN America. You can read her work in Prairie Schooner, Obsidian, 7×7 LA and Faultline (UCLA) among other publications. Jackson earned an MFA (creative writing) from Antioch University Los Angeles and a Ph.D. (psychology) from Claremont Graduate University. She is the Executive Director of The Offing.
2. The Kit Reed Travel Fund
In 2023, the Kit Reed Travel Fund will offer three $350 awards to BIPOC women & non-binary writers (reserving one exclusively for a Black and Indigenous writer) to attend a writing program or residency. In recognition of Covid-related restrictions, attending a conference, workshop, residency, or taking a writing course can be in-person or online. The $350 grant can be used toward travel, tuition, rent, child-care, groceries, or whatever else the writer deems necessary for attending their writing opportunity.
Overview
The Kit Reed Travel Fund offers $350 travel grants to BIPOC writers seeking professional or artistic advancement by attending a writing course, conference, festival, workshop, or residency. We at WWS understand the financial demands attending these artist opportunities can create for an individual writer. It is our hope that this grant can help offset hardships making more opportunities available to BIPOC writers from our community.
Kit Reed was a prolific novelist and short story writer, who cut her teeth in male-dominated newsrooms. A writing professor at Wesleyan University, she encouraged her students and kept personal connections with them long after they left. According to novelist and former student, Alexander Chee, “Her willingness to accept a call was an openness to another kind of connection and conversation with us, one that, for many of us, would go on for the rest of the time we knew her.” Kit Reed was a good friend and writers’ advocate who not only encouraged her marginalized students, colleagues, and writer friends to apply for advancement, but would find ways to help them behind the scenes wherever she could. This fund was made possible by a donation from her family in honor of her work as a writer, feminist, professor, and mentor.
To be eligible:
- You must identify as a BIPOC writer including mixed-race and multiracial identities.
- You must be a member of Women Who Submit Los Angeles Headquarters or a WWS chapter.
- You must have proof of acceptance to an upcoming course, workshop, residency, or proof of a panel or speaker acceptance at an upcoming conference or festival.
How to Apply
Applications should be filled out within two months of the intended conference, festival, workshop, residency, or writing course or within one month of attending. For example, if you are accepted for a workshop that is to take place the first week of June, the earliest you can apply is the first week of April. Or if you attended a workshop the first week of June, and you would like a reimbursement, the application must be filled out by the first week of July.
Applications must be submitted online through the online application. We recommend drafting your responses to these brief narrative questions in a Word Document and then cutting and pasting the answers into the online form where appropriate.
- Why did you select this writing opportunity and what activities will you be participating in? (200 words max)
- How will attending this writing opportunity impact your career or current project? (200 words max)
- What is your estimated budget?
- Cost of registration
- Cost of tuition
- Cost of hotels
- Cost of flights, bus or train tickets, and/or car rental
- Cost of food
- Cost of childcare
- Any other costs not mentioned here
- Email the following support materials to admin@womenwhosubmitlit.org with “Kit Reed Travel Fund” in the subject line:
- Curriculum Vitae or Resume
- Proof of acceptance (copy of acceptance letter, copy of schedule with your name in clear view, or some other official document)
Important Note
These grants will be awarded on a first come first serve basis. One to two will be offered between 1/1/2024-6/30/24 and another will be offered between 7/1/24-12/31/24. We choose to do it this way because we know people are applying for opportunities throughout the year and want to make them available upon need. Once you’ve been awarded a grant you are no longer eligible to apply again.
2024 Recipients
.CHISARAOKWU. – Cave Canem Retreat
2023 Recipients
Sarah Esmi – Emotional Historians with Jon Sands Workshop
Angela Franklin – Association of Writers & Writers Program, 2023 AWP Conference & Book Fair
Eva Recinos – Tin House Winter Online Workshop
2022 Recipients
Alison Jones – Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown
Cecilia Caballero – Tin House Winter Writers Workshop
Leonora Simonovis – Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshop
2021 Recipient
Gerda Govine-Ituarte – Carrizozo Artist in Residence
2020 Recipients
Ashunda Norris – Gotham Writers Screenwriting II
Jenise Miller – Shakespeare’s Sisters: Say Her Name
Amanda L. Andrei – Bucharest Inside the Beltway – Romanian Women Playwright Showcase
2019 Inaugural Recipients
Sakae Manning – Fishtrap
Grace Jahng Lee – Bread Loaf
Sibylla Nash – Joya: Artist in Residence