FINANCIAL AID Eligibility and Details (CLOSED–APPLICATIONS OPEN AGAIN OCT 1):
FELLOWSHIP QUALIFICATIONS: Fellow applicants should be emerging writers or poets with one full-length book published by recognized press, but no more than three total in the genre. Sorry to say, self-published books do not count. Fellows will be given housing and will attend our conference at no cost (fellowship has a value of well over $4000). Fellows will spend a week with an award-winning faculty workshop leader, have their work critiqued in workshop, will facilitate our Writers in the Classroom visit to local schools, and will also read in our annual Fellows reading. Travel and food are not covered (though most days we have events with meals and beverages).
SCHOLARSHIP QUALIFICATIONS: Scholarship applicants must not yet have a full-length book published or be self-published in the genre you are applying, but should be active in publishing or editing or actively working to be published. Most applicants have a few publications under their belt or education history in creative writing. Scholars will be given housing and will attend our conference at no cost (scholarship has a value of well over $4000). Scholars will spend a week with an award-winning faculty workshop leader and fellows, have their work critiqued in workshop, will facilitate our Writers in the Classroom visit to local schools, and will also read in our annual Scholars reading. Travel and food are not covered (though most days we have events with meals and beverages). Scholars also have specific duties during the week and are expected to work with directors to keep up with the conference day-to-day setups, so many consider it an internship as well. Travel and food are not covered (though most days we have events with meals and beverages).
*If you cannot afford the application fee, please let us know your situation in the application links. See below for details on expectations and opportunities and how we judge. Our judges change every year (and our directors have no input) so even if you have applied before feel free to keep trying!
| FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION LINKS (Poetry (2), Fiction (2), Creative Nonfiction (1)): $18 payment to PayPal* 2024 LWC Fellowship Application form |
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| Please pay the $18 application fee to Paypal first, then follow the link to our application form in order to submit 12-15 pages of your creative work (saved as Your Initials Title Genre Fellowship in pdf or doc or doc(x). Please do not include any personal details in the actual creative submission! You will also be prompted to include a short publication and award history to confirm your eligibility and a confirmation number for your paypal payment (simply pay to the email: longleafwritersconference@gmail.com). |
| MARILYN R HARRIS TEACHERS FELLOWSHIP* and TEACHERS SCHOLARSHIP* APPLICATION LINKS: $8 payment to PayPal HARRIS TEACHER Scholar/Fellow Application form |
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| TEACHER FELLOWSHIP or SCHOLARSHIP: Applicants must be current or retired public school teachers or administrators. *Longleaf considers all those working in education from the public sector: K-12, community colleges, state universities, and we are particularly interested in those serving under-funded districts. Please follow the links above to pay and submit 12-18 pages of your creative work, saved as Your Initials Title Genre TEACHER Scholar or Fellow in pdf or doc(x) to our application form above. Also include a short CV/bio about your teaching and publishing efforts or background and service and how you fulfill our eligibility requirements, saved as Your Initials BIO Genre TEACHER Scholar or Fellow in pdf or doc(x), along with a confirmation number for your payment to Paypal (simply pay to longleafwritersconference@gmail.com). |
| BAKER VETERAN FELLOWSHIP and SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION LINKS: $8 payment to PayPal Baker Veteran Scholar/Fellow Application form |
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| VETERAN FELLOWSHIP or SCHOLARSHIP: Applicants must be emerging North American veteran writers or poets (combat and peacetime). Please follow the links above to pay and submit 12-18 pages of your creative work, saved as Your Initials Title Genre Baker Scholarship in pdf or doc(x) to our form above. Also include a short CV/bio about your publishing efforts or background and service and how you fulfill our eligibility requirements, along with a confirmation number for your payment to Paypal (simply pay to the email: longleafwritersconference@gmail.com). |
| URG (under-represented groups) SCHOLARSHIPS APPLICATION LINKS: $8 payment to PayPal 2024 LWC URG Scholarship Application |
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| URG SCHOLARSHIP: applicants must be emerging poets or writers from URG backgrounds (Under-represented Groups) *In general, “underrepresented groups” (URG) in the US typically includes Black, Indigenous, other People of Color, and any other “non-white” racial/ethnic groups that are minority populations in the United States. While there is no single, unanimous definition of underrepresented groups in the arts or in creative writing, Longleaf also includes trans and disabled writers in this category. If your identifying group is not listed here and you would like to be considered for this scholarship, please communicate your situation explicitly in the application form. Please follow the links above to pay and submit 12-15 pages of your creative work (saved as Your Initials Title Genre URG Scholarship in pdf or doc or doc(x). Please do not include any personal details in the actual creative submission! You will also be prompted to include a short publication/award history, as well as a short personal history to confirm your eligibility and a confirmation number for your payment to Paypal (simply pay to the email: longleafwritersconference@gmail.com). |
LOCAL EMERALD COAST Financial Aid Opportunities:
| OPEN to all Local Writers (those writers living permanently between Pensacola and Panama City and north to FL border) St. Joe’s Community Foundation FELLOWSHIP (1) or SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION LINKs: $8 (scholar) $18 (fellow) 2024 LOCAL Fellow/Scholar Application Form |
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| LOCAL FELLOWSHIP or SCHOLARSHIP: applicants must be emerging local writers or poets (must be US residents and live and work within 100 miles of Seaside, Florida). Please follow the links above to pay and submit 12-15 pages of your creative work, saved as Your Initials Title Genre LOCAL Scholarship OR Fellowship in pdf or doc(x). You will also be prompted to include a short publication/award history about your publishing efforts or background and how you fulfill our resident eligibility requirements along with a confirmation number for your payment to Paypal (simply pay to: longleafwritersconference@gmail.com). |
Missed an opportunity to apply for our scholarships or fellowships? Don’t forget to apply for the AWP Kurt Brown Award which ends in late March every year!
SELECTION DETAILS: The Longleaf Writers Conference was founded on the principle of inclusion and on the principle of philanthropy; we began our scholar and fellow program just after our first trial-run of the conference, and we have been able to use enrollment and registration funds, along with money from generous donors, to build and grow these programs for our non-profit every year. See below for details about our offerings.
We follow the CLMP Code of Ethics in our selection process
CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we at the LWC agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines — defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage. The LWC does not promise that there will be even distrubution of awards across genres. We take only the best writing scores and determine the winners. Application fees will not be returned if there is no financial award in a represented genre, and once submitted application fees will not be refunded in case of errors with the submission, so read our guidelines carefully.
Scholarship and Fellowship Process & Guidelines
Judging for our financial aid awards: submissions are blind read (no identifying material included with submissions) and each submission is scored by 2-3 guest judges selected from previous LWC visitors, faculty, fellows, scholars, editors. Each applicant submission gets at least two individual readers. Conference directors then compile scores and select a winner, a runner-up, and a number of finalists from that group. Directors do not score or judge; they are only there to ensure that the finalists and winners are eligible for the financial aid awards. Judges change on a yearly basis, so keep trying.
Conflicts of Interest: Similar to most editorial policies, current students, faculty, staff, and administrators currently affiliated with Longleaf Writers Conference are ineligible for consideration or publication. Additionally, intimate friends, relatives, colleagues, and former or current students of a judge cannot be scored by that judge and will be passed along to another judge. Our judges change yearly so even if you do not succeed the first time, we have had financial aid offered to artists who have submitted over multiple years. If you have received financial aid from LWC, please wait at least three years before applying again.
FELLOWSHIP EXPECTATIONS and REQUIREMENTS:
Fellows must have at least one book published (must not be from a vanity press or be self published) but no more than three books total.
Local and Veteran and Harris Teachers fellows may forgo the book requirement if they can prove active work in publishing, teaching, and awards.
As a Fellowship award recipient, you will be expected to help our faculty with any necessary items during a five-day workshop (1 ½ hours each session) in your genre. You will also give a reading for our Annual Fellows Reading. This is a standard, casual 15 minute reading with other fellows. Fellows are the heart and soul of our conference and we hope they will be visible and will ‘give as much as they get’ in exchange for your free tuition and accommodations (worth more than $4000), so please be prepared to be involved, active, and generous. We expect fellows to attend all events.
Fellows receive free accommodation in Seaside and free registration for all conference offerings. Fellows will handle their own travel arrangements. Because we rely on the generosity of the local homeowners, we cannot provide specific details about the accommodations at this point, but housing in the Seaside area is typically much better than most other writing conferences you may be familiar with and almost always have unshared rooms and private baths. No dorms!
SCHOLARSHIP EXPECTATIONS and REQUIREMENTS:
Local, Under-represented Groups, Baker Veteran, and Harris Teacher scholarships must not have a published book launched before our conference dates. Each applicant should be working diligently in the written arts and most have some evidence of published material, teaching awards, or editorial work.
As a scholarship award recipient, you will be expected to help our faculty and fellows as they provide our 5-day workshop (1 ½ hours each session) in your genre. You will also give a reading for our Annual Scholars Reading. This is a standard, casual 5 minute reading with other scholars. Otherwise, Scholars should think of themselves as the glue that keeps this conference going; you will help the directors to organize, set up, tear down, whatever you can do to help in exchange for your free tuition and accommodations (worth more than $4000). We look to bring good citizen writers to the beach, so be ready to help us in any way and to also anticipate and ‘host’ as needs arise. We hire no administrators in order to keep costs down so that we can continue to build this vibrant program, so please be ready to be active and present and generous with your help and by paying attention to the details. Many of our scholars like to think of this as an ‘internship’ to also further develop their knowledge and skills in management and administration. We expect scholars to attend all events.
Scholars receive free accommodation in Seaside and free access to all our conference events. You will handle your own travel arrangements. Because we rely on the generosity of the local homeowners, we cannot provide specific details about the accommodations at this point, but housing in the Seaside area is typically much better than most other writing conferences you may be familiar with. No dorms!
