Applications are now available for New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Fellowships. This year’s categories include: Crafts; Interdisciplinary Performance; Photography; Playwriting; Poetry; Prose; and Sculpture.
Recent awards have ranged from $7,000 to $10,000.
No application fee; online application deadline: July 17, 2006; postmark deadline: July 19.
More information here.
For those of you whose writing interests connect with biography and/or oral history, I’ve found a few announcements that may be useful.
1) The UCLA Alumni Association is looking for three oral historians/senior writers. Job involves conducting interviews with faculty, staff, alumni, and others for use in an upcoming UCLA history book. Very research-intensive. Also involves taping/transcribing interview sessions and compiling post-interview summary reports.
2) The Oral History Association has announced a grant of up to $3,000 “to undertake oral history research in situations of crisis research in the United States and internationally. These funds may be applied to travel, per diem, or transcription costs for research in places and situations in which a longer application time schedule may be problematic. Such crisis situations include but are not limited to wars, natural disasters, political and/or economic/ethnic repression, or other currently emerging events of crisis proportions.” There’s no fee to apply. Applications must be submitted by June 1, 2006. More information is available here.
3) Freelancers near Beverly Hills, California, may want to check out this job opportunity ($15-$40/hour) with NewsBios.com. Job involves “reporting and writing profiles of influential journalists for online biographical service.”
4) And finally, if you just want to sit back and listen to some experts on the subject of “writing lives” (and you’ll be in Cambridge, Massachusetts next Friday), consider attending Writing 20th Century Lives: Biography as History, a conference scheduled for 2PM at Harvard’s Humanities Center on April 28. Panelists include historians Linda Gordon (New York University), Alice Kessler Harris (Columbia University), and Lizabeth Cohen (Harvard University), with Nancy Cott (Harvard University) moderating.
Writing contests. You see them advertised everywhere. And they can sound so promising.
The trouble is, many, if not most of them, charge fees to participate. And those fees sure can add up fast.
But there are lots of “no-cost” competitions–awarding cash, publication, residencies, and conference attendance, among other plums–for writers in every genre. They don’t charge fees. The Winter 2006 edition of The Practicing Writer’s Guide to No-Cost Literary Contests and Competitions profiles 221 such opportunities. And the complimentary preview includes several sample listings. Check out this great resource for your writing practice today (it’s updated semiannually to remove “dead” programs and revise links as needed while adding new opportunities).
Artist Trust has made available its application for Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) awards. These awards (maximum, $1,400 each) “provide support for artist-generated projects, which can include (but are not limited to) the development, completion or presentation of new work.” There’s no application fee, and you have until February 24 to postmark your application.
Applicants “must be a practicing artist, 18 years of age or older by application deadline date, a generative artist, and a resident of Washington State at the time of application and when the award is granted. Applicants may NOT be a graduate or undergraduate matriculated student enrolled in any degree program. See application for more information on eligibility.” Note that the projects themselves need not take place in Washington State.
Note also that writers from a wide array of disciplines may apply. For this program, “literary arts” includes but is not limited to Creative Non-Fiction, Experimental Works, Fiction, Graphic Novels, and Poetry. “Media Arts” includes but is not limited to film, video, animation, screenplays, and teleplays. “Performance Arts” includes but is not limited to musical theater, playwriting, and theater (and others). And applicants practicing in emerging fields or with cross-disciplinary interests (such as digital arts) are also welcome to apply, though they are advised to “call if you have questions about whether to apply in this category.”
You can find out much more, and download the 2006 application, right here.
If you’re an emerging creative artist (with “emerging creative artists” defined as “writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and spoken word; film and video artists; and choreographers”), and you are a resident of New York City or Minnesota, you may want to check out the Jerome Foundation’s Travel and Study Grant Program. Funds “support periods of travel for the purpose of study, exploration, and growth” outside of New York City or Minnesota. The grant awards may not be used, however, “for touring, performances, appearances, exhibition expenses such as shipping, production of new work, and teaching.”
Grants up to $1,500 will be awarded for shorter-term travel (three to six days). Award amounts of up to $5,000 will be awarded for trips lasting one week or longer.
There’s no application fee. Applications must be postmarked on or before January 13, 2006. For more information and forms, click here.