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LONGLEAF Fellowship and scholarship programs

The Longleaf Writers Conference was founded on philanthropy and inclusion. We began our scholar and fellow programs in 2013, growing to over two dozen full-ride options. Through the aid of donors, grants, and regional supporters, we have built and grown these programs for our non-profit every year. See below for details about our offerings.

2026 Fellowship applications

Fellow applicants should be emerging writers or poets with at least one full-length book published by a recognized press, but no more than two total in any genre. Sorry to say, self-published books do not count unless there can be proof of significant critical attention and sales. 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 workshop faculty, have their work critiqued in workshop, will help 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 included and plenty of evening hosted dinners). Please submit no more than 12 pages of your work (see more in application forms under specific fellowships).

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) and to be a strong supportive voice in your genre workshop. You will also give a reading for our Annual Fellows Reading. This is a standard, casual 8-10 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 valuable free tuition and accommodations, so please be prepared to be involved, active, and generous. We expect fellows to attend all events.

Fellows will share accommodation in Seaside and have 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!

Select option below to apply

Step 1: Submit PAyment
Step 2: Complete Application form

We will be awarding one of these fellowships this year.  

$18

Payment
Application

We will be awarding one of these fellowships this year.  

$18

Payment
Application

We will be offering one CNF Open fellowship this year. $18

Payment
Application

Applicants must be current or retired public school teachers or administrators or staff who worked or work directly with students. Please do not apply if you have not spent most of your career in the public education sector: K-12, community colleges, state universities (and we are particularly interested in those serving under-funded districts). 

$18

Payment
Application

Applicants must be emerging North American veteran writers or poets (combat and peacetime). We may overlook the book requirement if you can show active work in publishing, teaching, and awards.

$18

Payment
Application

Applicants must be emerging local writers or poets and must have their own local housing for the week of the conference. We may overlook the book requirement if you can show active work in publishing, teaching, and awards.

$18

Payment
Application

2026 Scholarship Applications

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 an established history in higher education or editing. Applications are read blind so it really has to do with the work submitted, rather than accolades, and scholars may have a book under contract, as long as it doesn’t appear before the conference that year. 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 the award-winning workshop faculty along with published fellows, have their work critiqued in workshop, will help facilitate our Writers in the Classroom visit to local schools, and will also read in our annual Scholars reading. We expect scholars to attend all events and seminars. Travel and food are not covered (though most days we have events with meals and beverages and there are plenty of evening hosted dinners). 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, management, organizing rooms and setting up food and chairs so many consider it an internship as well. It amounts to an hour or less of help each day. It should be noted that we are looking for good literary citizens in our scholarship pool–and will expect scholars to be willing and enthusiastic about helping us–if you are not someone who believes in supporting art community or in philanthropy in art, then don’t apply. Please limit your application writing submission to 12 pages or under (see more details under each scholarship application tab).

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), and to be vocal  in your workshop genre. You will also give a reading for our Annual Scholars Reading.  This is a standard, casual 4-5 minute reading with other scholars. Otherwise, Scholars should think of themselves as the glue that keeps this conference tight and efficient; you will help the directors to organize, set up, tear down, whatever you can do to help in exchange for your valuable free tuition and accommodations. 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 in the arts. We expect scholars to attend all events.

Scholars share accommodation in Seaside and have 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!

Select option below to apply

Step 1: Submit PAyment
Step 2: Complete Application form

Applicants must be current or retired public school teachers or administrators or staff who worked or work directly with students. Please do not apply if you have not spent most of your career in the public education sector: K-12, community colleges, state universities, and we are particularly interested in those serving under-funded districts.

$8

Payment
Application

Applicants must be emerging North American veteran writers or poets (combat and peacetime).

$8

Payment
Application

Applicants must be emerging poets or writers from URG backgrounds (Under-represented Groups). This year we will be rewarding up to five scholarships.

*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 permanently disabled writers who have met with significant obstacles to publication 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.

Payment
Application

Applicants must be emerging local writers or poets and must have their own local housing provided for the week of the conference.

$8

Payment
Application

2026 UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS

Longleaf has built special relationships with southern and regional universities and colleges and presses over the past decade. By partnering with the following institutions, we are able to bring emerging talent straight from their writing programs or offices to Longleaf. This year, we are proud to bring scholars from the following institutions:

  • University of Mississippi MFA program
  • University of South Alabama
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Texas State University
  • Austin Peay University
  • Cutleaf Review / Eastover Press
  • Auburn University

 

These institutions make their choices for who will win these awards following their own guidelines and these offerings are in addition to those fellowships and scholarships listed above.

Our process and 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 for financial aid. 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 already received financial aid from LWC, please wait at least three years before applying again. If you are submitting in a different genre and have previously won financial aid from Longleaf, please wait three years between applications. If you are submitting for the ‘next level’ (say, scholar to fellow), please wait two years between applications.

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 distribution 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.