Free money: Canada Council Grants for writers

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The Canada Council for the Arts provides various kinds of grants for writers and publishers. I've never applied for a grant myself, but maybe you should. After all, it's free money. 

The Grants for Professional Writers program covers subsistence, project and travel expenses. The Creative Writing Grants component gives Canadian authors (emerging, mid-career and established) time to write new literary works, including novels, short stories, poetry, children’s and young adults’ literature, graphic novels, exploratory writing and literary non-fiction.

(Exploratory writing is writing that uses technology to present literature in an innovative manner or explores forms of literature outside the conventions of the novel, short story or poem.)

Emerging writers are eligible for grants of $3,000 to $12,000.

Eligibility criteria for Emerging writers:

One literary book published with a professional publishing house

Or for fiction, a minimum of four texts of creative literary writing (e.g. short stories, excerpts from a novel) published on two separate occasions in literary magazines, recognized periodicals (including general interest magazines), or anthologies published by professional publishing houses

Or for poetry, a minimum of 10 published poems is required

Or for literary non-fiction, a minimum of 40 pages (10,000 words) of literary articles published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies published by professional publishing houses.

Mid-career and established writers are eligible for larger grants and require more publishing credits to quality.

The Canada Council for the Arts also provides travel grants for writers, grants for spoken word, story-telling and literary performance (see here), grants for aboriginal writers, for publishers, for writers in residence and for literary readings. Check it all out here.

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.