Writing Fellowships

FICTION AND NONFICTION

Daniel Pearl Investigative Fellowship ($5,000)
Submission: For early-career journalists (ages 22-38). A description of your story proposal, including how you plan to execute it, required.
Deadline: March 30, 2020

Fund for Investigative Journalism Grants ($5000 average)
Submission: For stories that break new ground and expose wrongdoing – such as corruption, malfeasance, or misuse of power – in the public and private sectors.
Deadline: General—TBA;  Diversity Fellowship: Oct 7, 2019

UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program Fellowships ($65,000 + travel stipend)
Submission: For journalists with a proven ability to tell complex stories in the public interest, to pursue a story for one year. A two-page memo outlining a complete project proposal and your reporting strategy, and summarizing media coverage of the subject you wish to cover required. Open to all working investigative journalists, but preference is given to graduates of UC Berkeley’s master’s program in journalism.
Deadline: January 25, 2019

Spencer Fellowship
Submission: Journalists who want to develop an ambitious long-form journalism project geared for a large, general audience. It is open to U.S. and international candidates.
Deadline: End of January for following year

Knight-Wallace Fellowship ($75,000)
Submission: Full-time journalists, with a minimum five years professional experience, whose work appears regularly as an employee or freelancer. Print, broadcast, photo, documentary and Internet journalists are eligible. There are no academic prerequisites.
Deadline: February 1, 2020 (domestic)

Philip Roth Residence in Creating Writing ($5,000 + 4-month residency)
Submission: For writers to finish their first or second book of prose.It is recommended that you can show proof of publication of past work.
Deadline: February 1, 2020

Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship ($50,000)
Submission: Investigative project proposals from experienced journalists with substantive bodies of published or produced work that have appeared in major print, broadcast, radio, or online outlets. Story leads must have a U.S. domestic focus and be of public interest. Particular consideration will be given to proposals that investigate serious wrongdoing and abuse of power in the public or private sector.
Deadline: TBA

NEA Creative Writing Fellowships ($25,000)
Submission: Grants are for prose(fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Applications are reviewed through an anonymous process in which the only criteria for review are artistic excellence and artistic merit.
Deadline: March 6, 2019

Richard J. Margolis Award ($5,000 + residency)
Submission: For a promising new journalist or essayist whose work combines warmth, humor, wisdom and concern with social justice. To apply, you will need to submit 1-2 examples of work, up to 30 pages.
Deadline: July 1 (applications accepted year-round)

Abe Fellowship for Journalists (check back for current info)
Submission: For journalists with at least five years of professional journalistic experience. Freelancers are also eligible. For international reporting on topics of pressing global concern to the United States and Japan.
Deadline: September 1

Cullman Center Fellowships ($75,000 + office)
Submission: For outstanding scholars and writers whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library.
Deadline: TBA, usually September

Hodder Fellowship ($83,000)
Submission: For writers and non-literary artists of exceptional promise.
Deadline: July 1, 2020

NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship ($5,000)
Submission: Applicants must be current residents of one of the five boroughs, and must remain in New York City for the entire year of the fellowship. Applicants can be of any age, but must be in the early stages of their careers as fiction writers.
Deadline: Check back January 2020

J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award ($25,000)
Submission: For an emerging or established writer of non-fiction. The cash prize helps an author work on and complete a major undertaking of nonfiction on a subject of U.S. constitutional or social interest. For writers already under contract only.
Deadline: Monday, December 9th

Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant ($40,000)
Submission: Awarded to as many as eight writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general readership.
Deadline: Check back in February 2020

Radcliffe Institute Fellowships ($70,000)
Submission: Scholars, scientists, and artists work on individual projects, or in clusters, to generate new research, publications, art, and more. Areas of special interest: (a) Applications related to the theme of citizenship–local, national, and global; (b) that involve the study of women, gender, and society; (c) that draw on the resources of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Deadline: Check back March 2020 (Creative Arts, Humanities, Social Science)
Science, Engineering, Math: October 3, 2019

Nieman Fellows ($75,000)
Submission: Applicants must be full-time journalists (including freelancers) with at least five years’ experience. Opportunity to study at Harvard for an academic year.
Deadline: December 1, 2019

BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellowship ($12,000 + career mentorship)
Submission: For four nonfiction writers. Candidates must have ambitious ideas and a proven desire to publish work that creates an impact on cultural conversations. The fellows spend four months in BuzzFeed’s offices in New York City or Los Angeles and focus on writing personal essays, criticism, and cultural news.
Deadline:  Awarded in 2018. Continuing?

Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship ($45,000)
Submission: Applicants should have a significant book-length project currently in progress. The project should address the history and/or legacy – broadly defined – of the American Revolution and the nation’s founding ideas.
Deadline: November 15, 2019

Wallace Stegner Fellowship ($26,000)
Submission: Ten two-year fellowships, five in poetry and five in fiction, are given annually to emerging writers. Submit 10 to 15 pages of poetry or a fiction manuscript of up to 9,000 words, composed of two short stories, one short story and a novel excerpt, or a novel excerpt.
Deadline: Usually Nov/Dec but check back as they are updating the application platform

Leon Levy Biography Fellowships ($72,000)
Submission: Emergent or first-time biographers, and writers moving to biography from other genres are especially encouraged to apply.
Deadline: January 6, 2020

For more ideas see:

Poets & Writers: Writing Contests, Grants & Awards
Global Investigative Journalism Fellowships
G&A: The Contest Blog
Hubpages
Funds for Writers