Horror Writers Association Offers Scholarships

scholarships214x164The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has created two annual $2500 scholarships – the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship for female HWA members and The Horror Writers Association Scholarship open to all members.

The scholarships are designed to aid the winners’ professional development and may be spent on “approved writing education over the two years following the granting of the scholarship.”

HWA President Rocky Wood explained the intent behind The Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship:

It is very clear to the HWA that there are unseen, but real, barriers limiting the amount of horror fiction being published by women. There are many fine women writers being published in our genre but we also see potential for the percentage of horror fiction being published by women to increase. This Scholarship, named after the great female horror writer, aims to encourage more female writers to enter our genre and to aid in the development of those already working within it. At the same time the HWA exists to extend the horror genre in all its aspects, so we are also establishing Horror Writers Association Scholarship, which is open to all our members, regardless of gender.

Applications will be accepted from November 1-December 31. The winners will be chosen by a subcommittee of the HWA Board and the first recipients will be announced around March 15, 2014.

The criteria that the subcommittee will consider in making its choice include

[The] quality and potential shown in each applicants’ written work to date; the likelihood that the applicant’s career would benefit from further writing education; the likelihood that the applicant is committed to the horror genre; the likelihood that the applicant will contribute to the development of the genre, including increasing and/or broadening our readership; an Education Plan the applicant submits; the applicant’s financial need; and the broad interests of the HWA and the horror genre.

Under the rules the winner of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship must —

1. Be born as a female; or

2. Be a transgendered, hermaphrodite or intersex person living publicly as a female. Those transgendered persons living publicly as a male are not eligible for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship but are eligible for the Horror Writers Association Scholarship.

[Via Locus Online.]