Welcome to The Big List of Deadlines for Nonfiction Writers!
This is a regularly updated resource for nonfiction writing grants, fellowships, residencies, and prizes throughout the year. I hope you find it useful as you work towards publishing more stories and advancing your writing career. There’s lots more to come, so bookmark this page and check back for exciting opportunities throughout 2025. 🎉
Wishing you a full year of taking risks, believing in your work, and getting your stories out there.
(New to One More Question? Welcome! Things are a little bit “under construction” around here as I slowly return to the wild world of Substack. But I’d love to be a regular presence in your inbox with reminders about opportunity deadlines, additional resources, and my personal musings on the writing life. Hit this subscribe button to stay connected!)
January
Fishtrap Fellowship | Fishtrap Fellowships recognize and encourage writers who show promise at an early stage in their career. The primary benefit of this award is an opportunity to attend the 38th Summer Fishtrap Gathering of Writers, July 7-13, 2025 at Wallowa Lake. In keeping with Fishtrap’s mission, “To cultivate clear thinking and good writing in and about the West,” applicants should live in the Western US or write about themes surrounding the West.
Mississippi Review Prize | Prizes of $1,000 in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Winners and finalists will make up next summer's print issue of the national literary magazine Mississippi Review. Deadline: 1/1
The Jacobs/Jones African-American Literary Prize | This prize honors Harriet Jacobs and Thomas Jones, two pioneering African-American writers from North Carolina, and seeks to convey the rich and varied existence of African-American/Black North Carolinians. Sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network and administered by the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill. Winner receives $1,000 and possible publication of the winning entry in The Carolina Quarterly. Deadline: 1/2
Jack Hazard Fellowship | For Summer 2025, fellowships of $5,000 will again be awarded to creative writers who are full-time educators teaching in accredited high schools in the United States. Deadline: 1/3
Steinbeck Fellowships in Creative Writing | The program offers the opportunity to interact with other writers, faculty, and graduate students, and to share your work in progress by giving a public reading during the fellowship. Fellowships include a stipend of $15,000. Award recipients will be required to reside within the counties of the San Francisco Bay Area or adjacent counties of the California central coast or central valley during most of the fellowship period, approximately September - May. Deadline: 1/5
Hearst Journalism Fellowships | This is the premier two-year newspaper fellowship in the country. Our goal is to recruit, train and retain the best of the next generation of journalists – top-notch multi-media professionals with a broad range of skills. The program consists of two 12-month rotations at our top metro papers and websites. Deadline: 1/6
Leon Levy Biography Fellowships | The Leon Levy Center for Biography offers four resident fellowships and one Sloan fellowship for a biography in science. Awards include writing space at the CUNY Graduate Center, full access to research facilities, research assistance and a stipend of $72,000. The period of the residencies is September – May of each year. Deadline: 1/6
The Trace’s Editing Fellowship | The Trace, America’s only nonprofit newsroom devoted exclusively to covering the gun violence epidemic, is seeking applicants for its editing fellowship. The one-year program is geared toward early- to mid-career journalists who are looking to establish themselves as editors, but have not had the opportunity to pursue editing full time. Deadline: 1/9
Earth Journalism Network Story Grants | Story grants of $1,500 - 2,000 to journalists to produce stories on transnational conservation crimes in the Amazon Region and the threats faced by Indigenous peoples and local communities in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Deadline: 1/10
The Georgia Review Prose Prize | The best short story and essay will both be published in The Georgia Review. This year the overall winner, chosen between the two, will also receive $1,500. The runner-up will receive $600. Deadline: 1/15
Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition | Encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $1,000, $300, and $200 respectively. Winning entry considered for publication by Ecotone. Deadline: 1/15
Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award | One $5,000 award in the spring of each year. Only proposals for literary or creative nonfiction book projects will be considered. 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. Deadline: 1/15
The Chautauqua Janus Prize | Celebrating an emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imaginations. In addition to receiving a $5,000 award plus a travel expense, the winner gives a lecture on the grounds during the summer season and appears in a forthcoming issue of the literary annual Chautauqua. Deadline: 1/15
Indigenous Community Media Fund | Promotes partnerships and provides funding to strengthen the infrastructure and transmission systems of Indigenous community media and radio stations, as well as training opportunities for community journalists. Grants up to $8,000 for individuals and $12,000 for groups. Deadline: 1/26
Grist Climate Solutions Fellowship | With the mentorship and support of Grist’s newsroom, the Climate Solutions Fellow will be expected to research and write stories examining the development and implementation of climate solutions. This fellowship is a full-time position and will run for 12 months, beginning May 5, 2025 and ending April 30, 2026. The annual base pay for this position is $58,750. Deadline: 1/27
Fund for Investigate Journalism Grants | Grants up to $10,000 and other support for reporters to produce high-quality, unbiased, nonpartisan investigative stories that have an impact. Deadline: 1/27
Money for Women, Barbara Deming Memorial Prize | Support grants ($500 - $2000) to individual feminist women in the arts. Money for Women is the oldest ongoing feminist granting agency in the US and Canada. Grants from the foundation give monetary support and encouragement to feminist writers and visual artists who are women (cis, transgender, or nonbinary). Deadline: 1/31
swamp pink Prizes | Previously known as the Crazyhorse Prizes, the swamp pink Prizes award $2,000 and publication for the winners in each genre, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Deadline: 1/31
Iowa Review Awards | Each January since 2003, The Iowa Review has invited submissions to The Iowa Review Awards, a writing contest in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Winners receive $1,500; first runners-up receive $750. Winners and runners-up are published in each December issue. Deadline: 1/31
Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize | A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,056) and publication in the Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short memoir. Deadline: 1/31
Nieman Fellowships at Harvard | Harvard and Nieman offer the rare gift of time to think, learn, plan and create in a rigorous academic environment. Nieman is the only fellowship program that also houses an array of publishing and convening initiatives focused on journalism. Deadline: 1/31
February
UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship | $10,000 grants to report in-depth print and audio stories on the science, policy, business and culture of this new era of psychedelics. Deadline: 2/1
Slippery Elm Prize | $1000 prizes in Poetry & Prose. 2025 Judges are Timothy Geiger in Poetry and Lara Lillibridge in Prose. Deadline: 2/1
Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing | Up to four months of unfettered writing time for a writer working on a first or second book in any literary genre. The residency provides lodging in Bucknell's "Poets' Cottage" and a stipend of $5,000. Deadline: 2/1
Hypatia-in-the-Woods Residency | Hypatia-in-the-Woods provides and maintains Holly House, a residential retreat center for women of all creative talents, in a serene environment in Shelton, Washinton, free of the distractions of everyday life. Application windows are quarterly. First deadline: 2/15
Allbritton Journalism Institute Reporting Fellowships | The fellowship offers aspiring journalists a two-year educational program that prepares them for careers as credible, non-partisan reporters in the nation’s capital or wherever their work may take them. Students learn core skills from respected professional reporters and editors in a classroom setting, and they gain real-world experience by working as reporters at AJI’s publication, NOTUS. Students are paid an annual stipend of $60,000 so that they can live in the D.C. area and devote their attention and energy to the fellowship. Deadline: 2/19
Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship | A fellowship for writers and communicators interested in learning more about Washington wine. The goal of the Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship is to grow consumer awareness and the perception of Washington wine by identifying and elevating emerging wine writers and communicators and making these new voices part of a community of lifelong ambassadors. The fellowship includes two trips to Washington, a $3,000 stipend, publication in Decanter magazine, and more. Deadline: 2/28
March
Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship | MAC’s Artist Fellowship program is focused on honoring Mississippi artists who demonstrate the ability to create exemplary work in their chosen field. The agency awards fellowships of up to $5,000 in multiple categories each year. The program is not project-based and does not require a cash match. Professional artists living and working in Mississippi are eligible to apply. Deadline: 3/1
Waterman Fund Alpine Essay Contest for Emerging Writers | Writers who have not published a major work of fiction or narrative nonfiction on topics of wilderness, wildness, or the ethics and ecology of environmental issues are eligible. The Waterman Fund provides generous prize money of $3,000 for the first-place essay selection and $1,000 for a runner-up. Deadline: 3/1
Alabama State Council Literary Arts Fellowships | The Alabama State Council on the Arts makes cash awards to individual writers in the literary arts based on merit of work, career achievement, career potential and service to the state. Usually two $5,000 Fellowships are awarded each year. Deadline: 3/1
Wild Women Story Contest | Stories about finding the Wild, reclaiming the Wild, experiencing the Wild, being the Wild, staying Wild. They especially love stories about the ways women use their power to create and shape the world, and stories about discovering—or remembering—this power in the first place. Stories can be fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. $1,000 and publication in Tulip Tree Review awarded to one winner in each genre. Honorable mentions are also published in an issue of Tulip Tree Review. Deadline: 3/8
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships | $50,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. 3/12
The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism | The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism provides experienced journalists with grants up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories that delve into critical economic, financial or business issues across a wide array of subjects. Deadline: 3/31
April
Fourth Genre Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize | The contest highlights outstanding writers and their work. The first place winner receives $1000 and publication in the following year's spring issue. judge this year is Sonya Huber. Deadline: 4/15
May
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest | Submit stories and essays on any theme, up to 6,000 words each. The winning story and essay will each receive $3,500. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $500 each. The top 12 entries will be published online. Mina Manchester is the final judge. This contest is proudly co-sponsored by Duotrope, which will award two-year gift certificates to the top two winners, a $100 value. Deadline: 5/2
More coming soon…
If you know of any opportunities that should be included here, please email me at britany.robinson@gmail.com, and I will add them!
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