Two-Spirit Emerging Writer Grant Information
About the Award
The purpose of this writing grant is to support an emerging Two-Spirit writer, who has not yet published a book, as they complete a full manuscript. The author will be paired with a Two-Spirit mentor who has published a book and who will provide guidance and encouragement during the manuscript development process. The mentor will be Arielle Twist (she/her), author of Disintegrate/Dissociate.
At the end of the manuscript development period, the grant recipient will be asked to submit their manuscript to End of the Line Press for review and consideration for a publishing contract with a book release date in 2026. The publishing contract will come with its own monetary advance on royalties that is separate from the grant.
This is a one-time grant. The total amount for the grant will be $4,000 CAD (2,854 USD) which will be disbursed to the recipient in February 2025. Our mentor, Arielle, will receive an honorarium for her work.
End of the Line Press extends its sincerest thanks to Arielle Twist for her valued contributions to our efforts and providing direction for this project and our organization. Our gratitude also goes to Nenookaasi Ochrym, former Proposal Writer for the 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations of Ontario, for guidance in creating this grant. Thanks also to everyone at 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations of Ontario for their support. ELP and this grant are made possible by funding from the Queer & Trans Research Lab at the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies - University of Toronto.
Eligibility
Applicants must be a Two-Spirit (Indigenous) person who has not yet published a book or received a book publishing contract. Applicants may reside anywhere and must be prepared to submit a sample of their writing. It is ideal but not required that the applicant have a book-length project in progress. We welcome writing of any genre but are interested in short forms, especially poetry and short fiction.
Selection of Recipient
The applicant who will receive the grant will be selected by the mentor in consultation with the managing editor of End of the Line Press. A short list of applicants will be interviewed in mid-January 2025. The selected applicant will be informed on January 22 and announced publicly on February 1.
Those applicants who are not selected will be invited to participate in a day-long, online writing workshop facilitated by an established Two-Spirit author to be held in the spring of 2025.
Promotion of Applicants
Samples from the submitted work of all eligible applicants will be posted on the ELP Instagram account, along with any biographical information or photos that the applicant would like to be shared; only the information and photos provided by the applicant expressly for that purpose will be shared.
Each applicant will be featured in their own Instagram reel, and reels will be published during the final weeks of January 2025. Viewers will be asked to comment on the reels with words of encouragement that uplift the applicant and express admiration for their work.
Any inappropriate, derogatory, or demeaning comments will be deleted and the user blocked.
Application Requirements
In order to apply for this grant, eligible writers should provide the following:
•a completed application form with information about themselves;
•a brief artist’s statement of at least 100 words and no more than 300 words; and
•a selection of their work in progress, from which a sample for public display is identified.
The artist’s statement should:
•describe your creative process;
•explain the rationale that informs how you create your work;
•relate your work to that of other artists; and
•indicate how you hope readers will respond to your work.
The selection of work in progress should be:
•between 20 and 40 pages for prose projects;
•between 15 and 25 poems;
•between 15 and 25 pages or images for visual arts projects; or
•between 15 and 25 pages or images for multigenre projects.
In your selection, please identify what portion of your work you would like featured as a sample on ELP’s Instagram account. The sample must fit into a single, square-shaped image suitable for Instagram.
For visual arts works that have a file size too large for the online application form (greater than 1 GB), please upload your work to Google Drive and include a link to it in your PDF.
All applications must be submitted electronically using this form: https://forms.gle/Sma3niqLKBigexht9. Questions or concerns about the application can be sent to info@endlinepress.com.
Deadline for applications to be received: Jan. 5, 2025 at midnight EDT.
Timeline
Date |
Phase |
|
Dec. 5 to Jan. 9 |
Application Period |
|
Jan. 10 to Jan. 30 |
Promotion of Applicants |
|
Jan. 10 to Jan. 13 |
Application Reading Period |
|
Jan. 16 to Jan. 20 |
Interviews with Short-Listed Applicants |
|
Jan. 21 |
Decision Meeting |
|
Jan. 22 |
Recipient Notified |
|
Feb. 1 |
Recipient Publicly Announced |
|
Feb. 1 to May 31 |
Writing Period with Mentorship |
|
May |
Workshop for Applicants |
|
June 15 |
Submit Manuscript to ELP |