Applications are currently being accepted for the Steinbeck Fellows Program of San José State University. The program offers emerging writers of any age and background the opportunity to pursue a significant writing project while in residence at SJSU.
The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success, but not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies and the University’s creative writing program. While the program in named in honor of John Steinbeck, there does not need to be any direct connection between Steinbeck’s works and that of the applicant.
One-year fellowships, each with a stipend of US$10,000, are open to writers of fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and biography. Applicants do no need to be U.S. citizens. Two or three fellowships are awarded each year and there is no application fee. Writers may not be enrolled in an academic degree program during the fellowship period.
The selected fellows must give a public reading once each semester during the fellowship and are expected to live in the San José/San Francisco Bay area during the academic year (approximately 1 September 2017 to 20 May 2018).
To apply writers must provide:
- a proposal or prospectus for the work to be written (one to three pages including basic timeline)
- a resumé
- three letters of recommendation (due by 31 January)
- a writing sample of no more than 25 pages
Applications close on Monday 2 January 2017. For further details and to apply visit the The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies website.
Read John Steinbeck’s Six Tips for Aspiring Writers.