Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grants

Overview

The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund offers financial support to feminist women writers and artists who need the time and resources to work on projects which are already well underway. The fund encourages applications from writers and artists in the early and middle stages of their artistic development. This year, the submissions portal will close after 250 submissions are received in each genre.

Awards

Support grants ($500 - $3000) are awarded to individual feminist women in the arts with primary residence in the US and Canada. Grants are distributed the summer after the application deadline.

Eligibility

• Former grantees must wait three years before reapplying.
• Finalists are welcome to reapply at any time.
• You may submit in only one genre each year.
• Translation or hybrid projects are eligible.

Exclusions

• Dissertations, course work, or academic research
• Artist collective projects or community programming
• Editing services including factchecking, copyediting, proofreading
• Publishing-related expenses
• Book tours, marketing materials, or publicity services
• Film, video, theater, dance, music, performance projects, scripts, and musical compositions
• Work that is generated by AI without acknowledgment or artistic rationale
• We do not provide loans
• Participation in MFA programs

Application Deadlines

• Fiction & Visual Arts Awards: Apply January 1-31, in even years (Next: January 2028)
• Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Awards: Apply January 1-31, in odd years (Next: January 2027)
• Links go live at 12:00am EST on January 1 and close after 250 applications are received in each genre (or 11:59pm EST on January 31, whichever comes first).

Fees