How to Get Funding for your Poetry Manuscript2. Grants are like lotteries. Your work may be excellent, but the people who happened to be judging this time didn’t like it. It often comes down to personal taste. You could just as easily have been the favourite of another juror had they been asked to adjudicate. If opinions of the jurors vary wildly, the writers who may end up getting funding might not even be the first choice of anyone on the jury - simply the ones that they could all agree on. If you do not get funding, do not take is as a sign that you work doesn’t cut it.
3. Read all the application rules over and over again and use the check-list provided. If you have any questions, call the grant officer and ask. Set aside an entire day to do the necessary assembling and proof-reading of materials. In an ideal world, you should always have a second person proof your application materials. Take special care to spell names correctly.
4. Never, ever send in rough drafts. If you were to place the original version of your poem on a table next to the poem you are sending in and they look at all similar, do not pass go. Edit, edit, edit.
5. Update your CV regularly. No one cares if your hobbies are unicorn-collecting and that you worked at a summer camp in the 80s. Keep it all writing-related, and as up-to-date as possible. If you are not design-savvy, ask an artist friend to format your CV to be concise and as pretty as possible. Presentation matters.
6. Keep in mind when re-reading your materials that the person you are most interesting to is yourself. To other people who have to read about 85 submissions, brevity is paramount. Short and concise, always. Keep cover letters to one page, no smaller than 12pt font and CVs to two pages maximum.
7. Remember that you are competing. Sell yourself. Use everything you have to make your submission look like they’d be ridiculous to turn you down. Highlight pull-quotes from reviews, get amazing letters of reference and send only the best of your very best work. Do not be humble or self-deprecating, as great as those qualities are in your every day life, in grant-writing land, they’re kind of annoying to people who have to read through the pile.
8. Celebrate the day you get your grant. Go out to dinner before squirreling it away, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time broke and struggling - take the time to feel it!
Types of Grants Available
Municipal
WRITERS - Project Grants for Individual Artists - This program supports the creation of new works or works-in-progress in the genres of fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry and oral traditions such as storytelling, dub, rap and spoken-word poetry.The program provides two levels of grants for writers: LEVEL ONE: $2,000 – for new or emerging writers with little or no prior history of publication. LEVEL TWO: $7,500 – for mid-career or senior writers with a history of professional publication.
Provincial
1. Writers’ Reserve Program
This is a great way to start out applying for funding and to network with potential publishers and magazine editors.
This program is administered by third-party recommendations from the literary community.
Eligibility: This program is open to published Ontario-based professional writers working on projects in fiction, poetry, literary criticism, commentary on the arts, graphic novels, history, biography, political or social issues, science or travel. Grant amounts range from $1500-$5000.
2. Writers Works In Progress
This program is excellent once you have a substantial amount of work done on a project or know exactly what you’d like to write but do not have the time to do the work.
Purpose: To assist professional writers to complete book-length works of literary merit.
Eligibility: Ontario-based professional writers may apply for support for the continuation of new work in poetry or prose, including graphic novels. Grant amount is $12,000.
Federal
1. Grants for Professional Writers
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 literature, graphic novels and literary non-fiction.
Deadline: October 1.
Eligibility: at least one literary book published by a professional publishing house, or 10 published poems. The grant amounts offered are from $3,000 to $12,000 for emerging artists.
2. Spoken Word & Storytelling Program
Deadline: April 15.
The Creation and Production component supports literary projects that are not based on conventional book or printed magazine formats. Grants are for the creation, production, performance, broadcast or promotion of spoken word and storytelling. Eligibility: professional spoken word artists or professional storytellers who have been paid in the past for their public literary performances or are recognized, in writing, by two established spoken word artists or storytellers. Grants range from $1,000 to $25,000, depending on the nature of the project.
For more information on both programs above look here.
Recommended places to submit your poetry
The Antigonish Review
ARC: Canada's National Poetry Magazine
Broken Pencil
Bywords.ca
The Capilano Review
Carousel
Chiaroscuro
ContemporaryVerse2
Dalhousie Review
dANDelion
Descant
Eleventh Transmission
Event
Exile
The Fiddlehead
fillingstation
Forget Magazine
Front & Centre
Grain
Kiss Machine
The Malahat Review
Nashaak Review
paperplates
PINE
Prairie Fire
Prism International
Queen's Quarterly
QWERTY
Stonestone (online)
sub-TERRAIN
Taddle Creek
Tickle Ace
torkstar.com: underground fiction
Wascana Review
West Coast Line
The Windsor Review
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