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About

National Endowment for the Arts award

I was enchanted to get an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing. The $20,000 was quite a lot of money in 1986, and it was sorely needed. The recognition gave a huge boost to an ego that also sorely in need, a double boost because my judge was Joyce Carol Oates.

But I got my Fellowship in 1986, and these days even finding out about the nationally funded grants in writing isn’t easy. You can’t just google for the information. If you do, you come up with material that’s years out of date. If you go to the Search Grants page of the US government - where you I gather have to register before you can register for the creative writing fellowship itself—and enter “Creative Writing” into the search box, you get information on 542 categories beginning with “National Science Foundation” project, then “Land Management and Conservation”. This Land Management stuff is clearly the wave of the future. If you try “Literature” in the search box, you get 186 categories starting with “Land Management and Conservation”. Scrolling down reveals nothing.

Hmm, not exactly helpful. The “Browse by Category” link brings up numerous NEA grants—but not the relevant one.

It takes a bit of rooting around in google, but persistance reveals that eligibility for NEA Fellowships in Creative Writing is much as it used to be; applicants must be published writers of fiction or non-fiction with either a book behind them or several short pieces. Applicants must also be US citizens or permanent US residents, can apply only once a year, can’t apply for a third fellowship if they’ve already won two. The awards appear to be $25,000 per year, up only $5,000 on my fellowship of more than 20 years ago, which says more than it ought to about something. The application process has become much more elaborate; it takes several days and even though it’s all electronic. Submission is electronic too.

Poetry and Creative Writing Fellowships are given in alternate years. March 2008 was a Poetry year;  March 2009 should be a Creative Writing year.

Various telephone numbers and email addresses are given on various pages offering to help with all the confusion. God only knows which one will or can answer any questions.

My advice would be to call them all, but I think I’d start with the one on the Creative Writing Fellowships page, which suggests you contact the Literature staff at 202/682-5034 or davisg@arts.gov
The Government Grants site gives Customer Service hours on its Contacts page as 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.
Help Desk: 1-800-518-4726
E-mail: support@grants.gov
Web site: www.grants.gov
The Contact Us page on one of the National Endowment home site gives a telephone number of 202-682-5400 or webmgr@arts.endow.gov
The telephone and email contacts given on the Apply for a Grant page on the NEA site are the same as they above for Government grants.