We Are The House: A Virtual Residency

 

We Are The House: A Virtual Residency
for Early-Career Writers

We’re delighted to announce Raising Mothers’ 2022 We Are The House: A Virtual Residency for Early-Career Writers, which is a year-long online residency with Raising Mothers for one BIPOC nonfiction writer. The residency is dedicated to helping early-career, underrepresented writers who are also parents build their writing portfolio.

Fellowship details:

During the 2022 We Are The House: A Virtual Residency for Early-Career Writers, the writer will work with the editor-at-large at Raising Mothers to publish three essays and one interview. The residency includes a $500.00 stipend.

The 2022 recipient of We Are The House: A Virtual Residency for Emerging Writers is Kya Mara. You can read our interview with Kya Mara here.

Read Mara’s bio below:

Kya Mara is an East African immigrant to Quebec, Canada. She is a single mother of two daughters. She was introduced to reading by her mother who was a keen literature student and, to-date, loves reading. Kya never gained the confidence of calling herself a writer until 2020 when she joined A Writing Life of Your Own, a scholarship she earned from Juniper Editing & Creative. Even though back in secondary school she had written a winning composition that earned her a scholarship where her school fees were paid for two years, she never considered herself talented enough. Fast forward, she is very excited about the opportunity of being the inaugural writer-in-residence for Raising Mothers as she also embarks on crafting her memoir—something she has desired to do for years.

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Raising Mothers will accept applications for the 2023 residency between February 1, 2023 and April 1, 2023. The winning recipient will be notified in May to begin the virtual residency in June 2023.

Residency eligibility:

  1. You are a BIPOC writer (Black, Asian, Latine(x), Indigenous, multiracial).
  2. You are a woman, femme, disabled, nonbinary and/or LGBTQIA+ parent.
  3. You have five or fewer nonfiction publications and do not have a published book or book under contract. Self-published books will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This residency is especially for emerging writers who have yet to establish themselves in the publishing industry.
  4. You are available for a virtual residency from June 1, 2023 – May 31, 2024.
  5. International applicants are welcome, but you must be able to coordinate virtual meetings with our editor-at-large located in the western United States (GMT-7).

Application requirements:

  1. In one document, please submit:
    1. A cover letter
    2. Three essays
  2. The cover letter should include a brief personal essay (500 – 800 words) explaining why you would be the best fit for this residency and what it means to be a parent-writer. The cover letter should also include a brief bio (150 words or less).
  3. Please submit three essays, at least two of which must be previously unpublished works. No rough drafts, please. Word limit for each is 1,000 – 3,000 words. Please indicate which work has been published, if any, along with a link to the previous publication site and include the word count for each essay. The unpublished essays will be considered for publication during the residency; however, we are also open to developing new essays during the course of the residency.
  4. Essays should be double-spaced, 12 pt sans-serif font, and black in color.
  5. We do not accept simultaneous submissions. We recognize the weight of this requirement and will notify you within a month or two about your application status.
  6. The application fee is $5. All fees will go toward the stipend.

 

About the fellowship:

Raising Mothers’ Editor-at-Large, DW McKinney, dreams of creating a physical space for emerging writers of color who are new or unfamiliar to the publishing industry, especially parent-writers and writers coming from a non-literary background like herself. This residency is the first step to that physical space and it is named in honor of poet Morgan Parker’s poem “We Are the House That Holds the Table at Which Yes We Will Happily Take a Goddamn Seat (after Solange).” Parker’s poem resonates with the mission of this virtual residency, which is to provide a seat at the table in a house, Raising Mothers, that was created in our own image.

We are excited to receive your applications next year. Please reach out at any time with questions about the We Are The House: A Virtual Residency for Early-Career Writers. You can email us at:  residency@raisingmothers.com