Applying to Residencies and Fellowships

About this course:

In Virginia Woolf’s essay, A Room of One’s Own, she said, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” However, sustaining a writing practice in today’s climate can be both isolating, challenging, and time consuming when dealing with our own life obligations and occupations. You don’t have to do it alone. In this course, we work collaboratively to generate drafts of application materials to submit for funding and support for our written work. Each week, we read sample application materials from residencies, writing conferences, and fellowships, to identify what is effective, and how our style and voice is influenced by the projects we’re proposing. We discuss what makes a successful, memorable application, what not to do, and practice giving and receiving developmental feedback on how we can better represent our projects. We also explore the types of funding available, what works for us, and strategies that streamline our application process. Weekly exercises put theory into practice, and tips and tricks from behind-the-scenes stats are given.