Sunday, January 11, 2009

Self Centered

This post is fairly selfish. That is, it's more pertinent to myself than the rest of the group. Bear with me, please.

I'm going to VCCA in about a month's time. I'm excited about having 18 days or thereabouts to do my writing and not be required to go to work or cook or clean or socialize if I don't want to. They're giving me the residency for practically nothing, and by using my Discover card I can whittle down much of the plane fare.

But I will be missing twelve days of work that I can ill afford to miss. Other people I know who have gone hither or thither have gotten fellowships to help them cover expenses. I don't know the first thing about this -- well, I know about it but I don't know how to apply that knowledge specifically to my case.

Does anyone know of any grants or fellowships I can apply to. How do I go about doing this?

4 comments:

Leslie said...

Most states have a cycle of artists/cultural grants. I don't remember if CA does, but that might be your best bet.

I've never one a Mass artists grant, but I keep hoping. Ours are $5000 with basically no strings attached.

Good luck and have fun at VCCR. I hope you get lots of new poems!

Eduardo C. Corral said...

Arizona has quick turnaround grants for its artists. The grants are to help cover some of the costs of residencies/ conferences/ etc. I applied for one and got one to cover my airplane and taxi fare. You should check if California or even your hometown arts commission has quick turnaround grants.

See you soon!

Anne Haines said...

Indiana offers Individual Artist Grants through the Indiana Arts Commission. Our application deadline is 2/1 and if you get the grant, you get the first part of the money in early June. So hopefully you can find something with a process that's a little less protracted! Your state arts commission would be my first suggestion, though. Can't hurt to try!

Unknown said...

Thanks, Leslie, Eduardo, Anne, but California is in deep doo-doo these days. That is, it's on the verge of insolvency. They're cutting back school days, creating "furloughs" for state workers. I *don't* think the state has helping a poet get to her residency as a priority.

Ah, it'll be all right. I hope.

Word verification: ingsta funny!