dr_phil_physics | Diverse Writers Grant and Diverse Worlds Grant

Since I turned 50, I have been applying for Speculative Literature Foundation's Older Writer's Grant. Haven't won it yet, but I did earn an Honorable Mention in 2009. So now the SLF is going after diversity -- both in terms of writers and the worlds they write about:

Dear writers, editors and publishers:

The Speculative Literature Foundation is now accepting applications for our inaugural Diverse Writers Grant and Diverse Worlds Grant. Both grants are intended to foster the creation of speculative fiction work rich in diversity.

Applications for the Diverse Writers Grant and the Diverse Worlds Grant will be accepted from May 1, 2014 until July 31, 2014. The winners for both grants are expected to be announced by September 15, 2014

More information about the Diverse Writers Grant and Diverse Worlds Grant is copied below and can be found at the following link:

http://www.speculativeliterature.org/Media_Kit/Release_2014_05_02.html

Please feel free to share this information. Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Malon

Malon Edwards
Managing Director and Grants Administrator
Speculative Literature Foundation
http://speculativeliterature.org/
2014 Diverse Writers and Diverse Worlds Grant application period: May 1 - July 31

More details:

The Diverse Writers Grant is intended to support new and emerging writers from underrepresented and underprivileged groups, including writers of color, women, queer writers, disabled writers, working-class writers, and those whose marginalized identities may present additional obstacles in the writing and/or publishing process.

The Diverse Worlds Grant is intended for work that best presents a diverse world, regardless of the writer’s background.

Writers may apply for either or both grants; however, one's writing sample does not need to center on identity issues. The Speculative Literature Foundation is looking for writing that offers deep characterization, complex cultural landscapes, and strong literary quality overall – not token characters or roles.

Currently, we are offering one $500 Diverse Writers Grant and one $500 Diverse Worlds grant annually.

To be blunt, one thing I like about these two grants is that the second grant isn't exclusionary. There's a simmering background resentment towards aiming grants for diversity, which totally ignores the advantages of privilege. Drives. Me. Nuts.

But in encouraging ALL writers to not whitewash their worlds, don't we all win? I mean I try. I need characters and the damned Central Casting in my mind defaults to white males with names ending in -son. It's like a vast 29th century interstellar fleet is populated completely from Minnesota. Not realistic. So I try to expand. Sometimes fail. Maybe mostly partially fail, but I'm working on it. I have been published in a lesbian themed anthology -- "Under Suspicion" in Tangle Girls (Blind Eye Press), which I'll be reading from at WisCon the end of the month -- and not everyone can say that.

And it doesn't hurt to encourage this. And make both the stories and the masthead reflect who we are in all our diversity.

Spread the word.

Dr. Phil