Are you an Asian American creative writer in search of a home to help cultivate your work? Do you want to write the stories of Asian immigrant communities in New York City you wish you saw in the mainstream media? Here's a great opportunity. The Asian American Writers' Workshop is now accepting applications for The Margins Fellowship and Open City Project Grant.
The year-long Margins Fellowship combines publication opportunities, a writers' retreat, mentorship, work space, and a $5,000 grant. With a six-month Open City Project Grant you'll join our journalism workshops series, have a chance to publish with AAWW, and get a $2,500 grant, plus more.
Here's some more information about both opportunities:
The AAWW Fellowships and Grants for Emerging Asian American Writers in New York
Due date: Friday, November 9, 2015, by 11 pm.
All applicants must read our FAQ before applying.
Information Session: Thursday, October 29, 6:30 pm at AAWW, 112 W 27 St, 6fl, NYC 10001.
"The Asian American Writers' Workshop was a secret door that opened and cared about and supported my work as a writer... It was such an important moment in my life as a writer to be there." - Jhumpa Lahiri
What do novelist Monique Truong, poet Cathy Park Hong, and journalist E. Tammy Kim all have in common? Each were mentored and supported by AAWW fellowships early in their careers. We're dedicated to incubating the next generation of Asian American writers—and we've got our eyes on YOU.
We're excited to announce two opportunities for emerging NYC-based Asian American writers. The Open City Project Grant will give writers the opportunity to write and publish narrative nonfiction over the span of six months on the vibrant immigrant communities of New York City. The Margins Fellowship is an opportunity for three emerging creative writers, aged thirty and under, to establish a home for their writing. Our online magazines have featured work by Chang-rae Lee, Jessica Hagedorn, Vijay Iyer, Kim Hyesoon, Hanya Yanagihara, Amitava Kumar, and more, and been linked to in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and The New Inquiry.
Open City documents the pulse of metropolitan Asian America as it's being lived on the streets of New York right now. We're looking for writers to create deft, engaging narratives that bring the face, name, place, and heart of the community to issues like gentrification, labor, and community policing. Open City in 2016 will offer a $2,500 grant, skill-building workshops, and publishing opportunities to six writers to write on the vibrant Asian immigrant communities of New York City. Three grantees will be selected for the first six-month period, from January to June 2016. We will be accepting applications for the July-December grant period in April 2016. We are especially looking for neighborhood-based projects in spaces such as Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Manhattan's Chinatown, Flushing, Jackson Heights, and Richmond Hill.
The Margins is our online magazine of arts and ideas. We seek to bridge the allegedly contradictory worlds of literary thought and social justice, pop culture, and critical theory while engaging with immigration, race, and transnationalism. Now going into its second year, The Margins Fellowship will grant a $5,000 fellowship, mentorship, work space, career guidance, and publishing opportunities to three creative writers of Asian American descent for a full year. Fellows will also receive special residency space at The Millay Colony for the Arts, a seven-acre artists retreat space at the former house and gardens of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The deadline to apply is Friday, November 9. For further details on The Margins Fellowship and the Open City Project Grant, make sure you read the FAQ over at the Asian American Writers' Workshop website.