Speculative Literature Foundation Offers Working Class Grant

The Speculative Literature Foundation is taking applications for its first annual Working Class/Impoverished Writers Grant. The grant is aimed at “working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction” due to financial barriers.

Guidelines and directions for applying for this SLF grant are here. The Foundation emphasizes it is available to international writers as well as Americans, so people will not be misled by the domestic examples used to illustrate the characteristics of qualifying applicants:

You would potentially be eligible for this grant if any of the following apply:

  • you’re American, and qualify for the earned income credit,
  • you’ve qualified for food stamps and/or Medicaid for a significant period of time,
  • you live paycheck to paycheck,
  • your parents did not go to college,
  • you rely on payday loans,
  • your children qualified for free school lunch,
  • you’re currently being raised in a single parent household,
  • you’re supporting yourself and paying your own way through college,
  • you’ve lived at or below 200% of the poverty line for your state for at least one year,
  • you’ve experienced stretches of time when food was not readily and easily available.

The application period for the Working Class/Impoverished Writers Grant opened December 1, 2014, and will close February 20, 2015. The winner for the grant is expected to be announced by April 15, 2015.

The 2014 jurors for the Working-Class Grant are Suneetha Balakrishnan, Linda Wight, Rebecca Gibson, Candace West, Sam Montgomery-Blinn, and Malon Edwards.