National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships in Poetry

The National Endowment of the Arts, also called NEA, is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and financial help to projects displaying artistic excellence.

The efforts of the NEA revolves around the accomplishment of their mission which is to become “dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education”.

In keeping with this mission, the National Endowment for the Arts has been running the Literature Fellowship Program in Poetry.

The Literature Fellowship program will offer $25,000 grants in poetry to published creative writers that are effective at writing literary pieces, conduct research, travel, and work on general career advancement activities.

The fellowship program will last for a year and applicants shall be reviewed anonymously, meaning the review panel will not know who the applicant is but will only base their judgment of his/her literary pieces.

The NEA has stressed that they will not be entertaining applications from individuals who:

a) Previously received two or more Literature Fellowships in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry or Translation Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

b) Have received any Literature Fellowship in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry or Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts within the past ten years.

c) Are engaging in the field of news reporting.

d) Are participating in scholarly writing.

e) Are working towards acquiring academic degrees.

Eligible creative writers need to send their applications electronically at the Grants.gov website.

Creative writers will be qualified to take part in the poetry fellowship program if they meet the following requirements:

a) Have published a volume of 48 or more pages of poetry between January 1, 2005, and March 1, 2012.

b) Have published twenty or more different poems or pages of poetry in five or more literary journals, anthologies, or publications between January 1, 2005, and March 1, 2012.

The Literature Fellowship Program is important to the National Endowment of the Arts because it is very much in line with their overall agency mission and it also helps them support writers who have the potential to attain artistic excellence but are lacking in funds and finances.

Iola Bonggay is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com. She maintains Websites providing resources on grants for small business and civic engagement grants.