Emergency Grants & Resources for Writers

Page created March 14, 2020, to help writers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Latest update: January 22, 2025.

January 13, 2025: I’m not certain precisely how to re-organize this page for the purpose of most efficiently assisting all of those writers now facing the devastating effects of the Southern California wildfires. But I’m trying. Thank you for bearing with me.

OVERVIEWS/WILDFIRES-SPECIFIC INFORMATION

GENERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

  • The American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA) Writers Emergency Assistance Fund “helps established freelance writers who, because of illness, disability, a natural disaster, or an extraordinary professional crisis are unable to work. A writer need not be a member of ASJA to qualify for a grant.”
  • “Since 1917, the Authors League Fund has helped professional authors, journalists, poets, and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. Most of those we help suffer severe health problems but have inadequate insurance; some face eviction; many are older writers whose income has ceased through no fault of their own. The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Repayment of this emergency support is not required.”
  • “The mission of Carnegie Fund for Authors is to award grants to published authors who are in need of emergency financial assistance as a result of illness or injury to self, spouse, or dependent child, or who has had some other misfortune that has placed the applicant in pressing and substantial pecuniary need. We accept applications from any American author who has written at least one book of reasonable length that has been published commercially and received reader acceptance.”
  • The Clayton Memorial Medical Fund “helps professional science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery writers living in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska deal with the financial burden of medical expenses.”
  • The PEN America Writers’ Aid Initiative “is intended to assist fiction and nonfiction authors, poets, playwrights, translators, and journalists in addressing short-term financial emergencies. To be eligible, applicants must be professional writers based in the United States, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping address a short-term emergency situation.” 
  • The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Emergency Medical Fund (EMF) “was established to help genre writers pay medical expenses not otherwise covered by insurance. The fund is meant to cover only short-term (i.e. emergency situations that interfere with the ability to write).”
  • The UK’s Society of Authors Grants for Writers in Need “offers hardship grants to authors in financial difficulty.” Note that applications are open “to all professional authors who are resident in the UK or British citizens – including all types of writers, illustrators, literary translators, scriptwriters, poets, journalists and others – whose author-related activities make up a substantial amount of their annual income.”
  • The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Emergency Fund “has been established to provide assistance to SCBWI members of at least six months’ standing in times of emergency or hardship. The emergency or hardship could involve, for example, matters of health, family issues, or natural disasters that are in any way restricting or preventing an SCBWI member’s ability to work as an author or illustrator.” (NB: When checked January 13, 2025, this fund had paused from accepting new requests; “please continue to check back here for updates.”)
  • The Woodcock Fund “is a quick-access emergency resource that aids established Canadian writers who face an unforeseen financial crisis.”

OTHER RESOURCES & COMPILATIONS (FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC)