Genre: Creative Nonfiction

In Cahoots Residency

May/June 2024

In Cahoots offers residencies of one or two weeks year-round to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and scholars in the countryside of Petaluma, California, in scenic Sonoma County. Residents are provided with individual cottages, each with a private kitchen, bathroom, and studio for writing. The cost of the residency is $950 for one week or $1,600 for two weeks. To apply for residencies between January and May 2025, submit one to three writing samples totaling no more than 10 pages, a project proposal, and a curriculum vitae with a $25 application fee by June 1.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
May 21, 2024
Rolling Admissions: 
no
Application Deadline: 
June 1, 2024
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
May 21, 2024
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

In Cahoots Residency, 198 Liberty Road, Petaluma, CA 94952. Macy Chadwick, Founder and Director.

Macy Chadwick
Founder and Director
Contact City: 
Petaluma
Contact State: 
CA
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
94952
Country: 
US
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Animals Are People Too

The Time Is Now
4.4.24

The human tendency to anthropomorphize may come with risks great or small, but could there also be benefits? Last month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands signed a historic treaty granting legal personhood to whales, with the hope that the bestowal will lead to negotiations with Polynesian governments to enforce greater protective rights for the animals, which hold a position of sacred cultural importance. This week, write a personal essay that reflects on a moment, memory, or encounter that propelled you to project humanlike qualities onto an animal, whether a pet, insect, pest, or country critter. Do your personal beliefs about personhood collide or align with arguments about humanity and nature, or different types of sentience and consciousness?

Hanif Abdurraqib on There’s Always This Year

Caption: 

“It was good to write a book where I’m staring at time directly, in a very literal sense.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Hanif Abdurraqib talks about the unique writing process for his latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), the power of nostalgia, and his life in Ohio. Abdurraqib’s new book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Hanif Abdurraqib
There’s Always This Year
Random House
Poured Over
Miwa Messer
Page One
March/April 2024

Applications Open for Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.3.24

The Whiting Foundation is accepting applications for the 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants until April 23. Up to ten writers working on “complex, imaginatively composed” nonfiction books will receive a grant of $40,000 each. The grantees will be announced in December.

Eligible writers will have already made significant progress on their books, which should be multiyear, original projects that involve deep and significant amounts of research and writing. Given at a “crucial point mid-process,” the grants are intended to provide “an extra infusion of support” that can meaningfully improve the quality of the books. To be considered, projects must be under contract with a U.S., Canadian, or U.K. publisher. In acknowledgment of “additional structural hurdles to securing institutional resources to support such projects, “writers of color in particular are encouraged to apply.” 

Recipients of the 2023 grants were Nicholas Boggs for James Baldwin: A Love Story, Eiren Caffall for The Mourner’s Bestiary, Sarah Chihaya for Bibliophobia, Alexander Clapp for Waste Wars: A Journey Through the World of Globalized Trash, Kendra Taira Field for The Stories We Tell, Molly O’Toole for The Route: The Untold Story of the New Migrant Underground, Dom Phillips with collaborators for How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know, Carrie Schuettpelz for The Indian Card: A Journey Through America’s Native Identity Problem, Sonia Shah for Special: The Rise and Fall of a Beastly Idea, and Reggie Ugwu for Brilliance Is All We Have: Black Filmmakers and the Fight for the Soul of America.

To learn more, visit whiting.org/writers/creative-nonfiction-grant/about. The Whiting Foundation hosted two online information sessions to answer questions and offer guidance on applying for the grant; a recording of an info session is available here. Writers may submit an application via the online form by 11:59PM ET on April 23.

Face It

The Time Is Now
3.28.24

How do you tell the tale of your nose, lips, teeth, eyes, brows, and cheeks? This week, study yourself closely in a mirror, and write a memoiristic essay that relays the backstories of your facial features. Are there elements that have shifted, scarred, or been modified in some way with orthodontics, makeup, surgery, or the natural processes of aging? Have there ever been parts of your countenance that you’ve disliked or preferred, and has that changed over time? Take a long, hard look at yourself and reflect on the memories that come up and how your facial expressions and textures have evolved. You might decide to cover just one or two features, or be inspired to cover each part of your face and how they all have a story.

Fallon Book Club March Madness

Caption: 

In this The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon video, the host reveals the return of the Fallon Book Club with a March Madness style bracket of sixteen books to vote for as a winner, including James (Doubleday, 2024) by Percival Everett, Wandering Stars (Knopf, 2024) by Tommy Orange, and Grief Is for People (MCD/FSG, 2024) by Sloane Crosley.

Genre: 
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
The Tonight Show
Jimmy Fallon
James
Percival Everett
Wandering Stars
Tommy Orange
Grief Is for People
Sloane Crosley
2024

Daily Grind

The Time Is Now
3.21.24

Day Jobs, an exhibition currently on display at Stanford University’s Cantor Art Center in California, examines the impact of day jobs on artists. Showcasing the work of three dozen visual artists, the accompanying catalogue offers first-hand accounts of how their employment in places like a frame shop, hair salon, and museum helped inform their creativity. The exhibit deconstructs the romanticized image of the artist and draws attention to how one’s economic and creative pursuits are often intertwined. Write a personal essay that considers how one of your day jobs unexpectedly influenced your own writing projects. How might something undertaken because of financial necessity also provide valuable ideas to explore in your art?

Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat

The Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat will be held from September 22 to September 28 at a chalet in Chamonix, France, a resort area at the base of Mont Blanc, the highest summit in the Alps, near the junction of France, Italy, and Switzerland. The retreat features classes on all aspects of publishing, workshops, pitch sessions, query letter critiques, one-on-one consultations, and independent time to write for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. Residents also receive a personalized publishing plan.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
no
Event Date: 
September 22, 2024
Rolling Admissions: 
yes
Application Deadline: 
May 21, 2024
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
May 21, 2024
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat, P.O. Box 569, Kilauea, HI 96754. Carol Johnson, Managing Director. 

Carol Johnson
Managing Director
Contact City: 
Chamonix
Country: 
FR
Add Image: 
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Jaded Ibis Press Accepting Submissions From Historically Marginalized Writers for Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award Until March 31

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.20.24

Jaded Ibis Press is currently accepting submissions of book-length creative nonfiction manuscripts, including memoir, essays, and reporting, for its Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award, given to a writer who identifies as a historically marginalized voice. The deadline to enter the contest, which awards $1,500 and publication by Jaded Ibis Press, is March 31. 

Using only the online submission system, submit 45,000 to 75,000 words of prose with a $20 entry fee. Myriam Gurba, whose most recent book is the essay collection Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Avid Reader Press, 2023), will judge. All entries will be considered for publication. 

Jaded Ibis is a feminist press committed to publishing socially engaged literature with an emphasis on the voices of people of color, people with disabilities, and other historically silenced and culturally marginalized voices. Recently published titles include Mei-Mei Holland’s poetry and prose collection Year of the Cicada and Nada Samih-Rotondo’s memoir, All Water Has Perfect Memory, both of which were acquired by Jaded Ibis acquisitions editor Lisa Pegram, who says she’s interested in “submissions from authors who have a distinctive voice and write books that explore the lives and concerns of those who identify as women and/or people of color.”

About the Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award, the editors say it “is more than a literary contest; it’s an opportunity have your book lovingly edited, designed, produced as both an e-book and print edition, marketed, and submitted to eligible literary awards and prizes.” They add: “Join us in amplifying voices that need to be heard, and submit your manuscript for a shot at making a powerful impact. Your story matters, so let it be uplifted!” Visit the website for more information. 

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