Writing Competition: Ellen Meloy Grant for Desert Writers

There is a $15 fee to apply. The application requires a project proposal, a biographical statement, and a writing sample of no more than 10 pages. Please submit all materials in one document.

If your application contains any identifying information (name, web links, article citations, bibliographical data, etc.) we will ask you to revise your application and resubmit. The resubmitted application must still reach us by midnight on January 15. Thank you for following the award guidelines to ensure the integrity and fairness of our selection process.

Please note: The submission confirmation you see after hitting the submit button (and please only click it ONCE) is the ONLY confirmation you will receive. You will be notified in early spring of this year's winner and finalists.

SUBMISSIONS OPEN NOVEMBER 1. Submit by January 15 to be considered for a $5,000 grant. 

GRANT GUIDELINES

The Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers grants one $5,000 award in the spring of each year. Only proposals for literary or creative nonfiction book projects will be considered. No fiction or poetry proposals will be reviewed.

 The Fund supports writing that combines an engaging individual voice, literary sensibility, imagination and intellectual rigor to bring new perspectives and deeper meaning to the body of desert literature. All applications will be reviewed through a peer-panel process.

Considerations in the selection process will be:

• the writing sample’s artistic excellence and desert literacy,

• the strength of the proposed book project,

• the biography’s ability to demonstrate a history and future of writing and desert experience.

• We encourage emerging, mid-career or established writers in the field of literary nonfiction to apply

• Financial and other kinds of need, the body of past work, geographic location of the applicant, academic career, professional reputation, etcetera, are not criteria for receipt of a grant.

We do NOT fund:

• Individuals who have received an Ellen Meloy Grant within the last five years

• Poetry or fiction proposals

• Children's literature

More information and application forms here.