The Art of Applying: Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants

Saturday, March 8, 2025 (10AM-3PM Pacific) via Zoom

An all-day intensive online workshop with Chelsea Biondolillo

To get the time, space, and tools they need for projects, writers can look to fellowships and grants, calls for papers, residencies, and workshops. But gaining access to these resources is often a competitive process requiring a specific set of skills. You may be asked to write documents such as a cover letter, statement of work, and project proposal. The writing that can make these documents most effective is often very different from the writing that many artists and writers use in their creative practices.

The formats and content that selection committees expect can be a barrier for people who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with meeting the expectations. Even reading application guidelines can be anxiety-inducing—causing many to quit before they’ve started. The main goal of this one-day seminar/workshop is to reduce anxiety or discomfort by describing methods to navigate the ways and means of these materials. The secondary goal is to help you to draft some of your own documents that can be immediately useful for application season.

In this course, you’ll learn how to see the development and organization of application materials as part of your “professional” persona. By organizing effectively, speaking and writing confidently about your own work, and developing realistic, achievable and appropriate proposals to deliver to funders, you’ll give you and your work the best chance at securing funding or resources. You’ll learn techniques associated with professional writing, editing, and marketing, and some tips on how to research opportunities.

Pricing:

This workshop offers a sliding scale based on your relative financial standing. In an effort to reflect disparity in economic condition and access to wealth, the following payment system is designed for those with more wealth to help cover the costs of those with less access to wealth and resources. We trust your discernment of your current financial situation and how you fit into the global economic context.

As you decide what amount to pay, please consider your present-day financial situation governed by income, but also the following factors: historical discrimination faced by your peoples; your financial wealth (retirement/savings/investments); your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (how easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your community, country, and the world; are you expecting an inheritance); people counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members; the socio-economic conditions of your locale (relative to other places in your country and in the world); your relationship to food & resource scarcity.

$325 Partner

$250 Supporter (Note: This amount reflects the real value of this course.)

$175 Companion

$150 Friend

A limited number of scholarships are also available for anyone needing further financial assistance. Please email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com for more info, or if you are feeling challenged in any way by the financial requirements of participation.

Chelsea Biondolillo is the author of The Skinned Bird: Essays and two prose chapbooks. Her work has been collected in Best American Science and Nature Writing, Waveform: 21st Century Essays by Women, The Lyric Essay as Resistance, and others. She is a former Olive B O'Connor and Oregon Literary Arts fellow and has received grants, funding, or residencies from the National Science Foundation, Wyoming Arts Council, Hedgebrook, the Fine Arts Work Center, and others.