Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Writing Fellowships

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Entry Fee:

Deadline:

September 16, 2025

Fellowships of approximately $60,000 each are given annually to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on the basis of “exceptional creative ability.” Citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada who are midcareer professionals and have “already made significant contributions to their field” are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit a career summary, a list of publications, a three-page project proposal, and contact information for up to four references by September 16. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

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grants

Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative

Principal Foundation

Entry Fee:

Deadline:

October 12, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and publication on the Short Édition website and in Principal Foundation’s Short Story Dispensers (located in six cities across the United States) will be given annually for a short story or essay “on themes related to money and personal finance.” Mateo Askaripour, Paco de Leon, David Drury, Bourree Lam, and Daniel Lefferts will judge. Using only the online submission, submit a manuscript of up to 7,500 characters of prose by October 12. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

John Updike Tucson Casitas Fellowship

John Updike Society

Entry Fee:

Deadline:

November 1, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and a two-week residency at the Mission Hill Casitas that John Updike owned and worked out of in Tucson is given annually for a group of poems or a work of fiction or nonfiction. The fellowship selection committee will judge. Submit five pages of poetry or prose (excerpts from a longer work are accepted), a brief bio, and a project description in a single PDF by November 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Helena Whitehill Award

Tupelo Press

Entry Fee:

$30

Deadline:

November 15, 2025

A prize of $1,000 and publication by Tupelo Press is given annually for a full- or chapbook-length poetry collection or a book of creative nonfiction (including memoir, essays, and hybrid work). The winner will also receive a one-week residency at Gentle House in Port Angeles, Washington. Jane Wong will judge. Submit a manuscript of poetry or prose of any length with a $30 entry fee by October 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Banned Artists

The Time Is Now

8.7.25

In a recently published article in T Magazine, artists, including John Waters, Andres Serrano, Karen Finley, Khaled Hosseini, Geraldine Brooks, Art Spiegelman, Kate Bornstein, and Dread Scott, were interviewed about how censorship changed their work and lives. “The censorship does the opposite of what it wants to do,” said playwright and director Moisés Kaufman. “It makes people really think: ‘What are the issues in the play? Whose stories get to be told?’” This week write a personal essay that focuses on either a work of art, literature, or performance that has endured censorship at some point. Describe the work and the themes within the work that provoked censorship. How did this banning affect your ideas of the role of an artist?

Garrett Hongo and Edward Hirsch

New Works: Garrett Hongo and Edward Hirsch

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In this Poets House event, Garrett Hongo reads from his fourth poetry collection, Ocean of Clouds (Knopf, 2025), and Edward Hirsch reads from his new memoir, My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy (Knopf, 2025), followed by a conversation between the authors about their friendship and humor.

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My Childhood in Pieces

Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation

KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION – OFFICIAL TRAILER | Universal Documentaries

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Directed by Ebs Burnough, this documentary explores the influence that Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel, On the Road, has had on writers, actors, storytellers and artists, and follows the lives of Americans who set off on their own journeys in the footsteps of the famous author, who died in 1969 at the age of forty-seven.

Genre:

Creative Nonfiction

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Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation

Revisiting

The Time Is Now

7.31.25

“The Chelsea was like a doll’s house in the Twilight Zone, with a hundred rooms, each a small universe. I wandered the halls seeking its spirits, dead or alive,” writes Patti Smith in her award-winning 2010 memoir, Just Kids, recounting her time living in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City during the golden, gritty chaos of her youth. Inspired by this image, write an essay about returning to a place that once held deep meaning for you. It might be a childhood home, a first apartment, a rehearsal space, or a street corner that once felt like the center of your world. Explore what it feels like to stand in a space that is both familiar and changed. How does memory overlay reality? Do ghosts of your former self or others linger in the corners?

Anne Lamott on Writing as a Debt of Honor

Writing As A Debt of Honor – a full-length talk by Anne Lamott #writing

Caption:

In this video from the keynote of A Writing Room’s 2022 retreat, best-selling author Anne Lamott speaks about the discipline needed to write and reflects on writing as a spiritual and moral practice grounded in truth telling.

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