Travel Grants for Professional Writers
The Canada Council for the Arts is committed to equity and inclusion, and welcomes applications from diverse Aboriginal, cultural and regional communities, including people with disabilities.
Deadline
Any time before departure date.
Applicants who wish to have the results before their departure should apply at least three months in advance.
The Canada Council for the Arts will not accept applications postmarked after the departure date, incomplete applications or those submitted by fax or email.
Program Description
Travel Grants enable writers, translators, literary performers, spoken word artists and storytellers to respond to invitations to specific literary events that are important to their artistic development and career.
Eligibility
Note that meeting the eligibility criteria does not guarantee that you will receive a grant.
Eligible applicants
To apply to this program, you must be a Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You do not need to be living in Canada when you apply.
You must also meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who:
- has specialized training in the artistic field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as a professional by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if possible financially.
To meet the definition of a professional writer, you must also have one of the following:
- at least one book published by a professional publishing house
- for fiction, a minimum of four texts of creative 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
- for poetry, a minimum of 10 published poems
- for literary non-fiction, a minimum of 40 pages (10,000 words) of articles published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies that are published by professional publishing houses.
For eligibility of publishers, please see the Canada Council for the Arts Publisher Eligibility criteria in its Book Publishing Support: Emerging Publisher Grants/Block Grants program on the Canada Council website.
Only literary publications for which the author has received financial compensation and that have gone through an independent editorial selection process will be considered when determining eligibility.
Professional writers working in all languages and literary artists working in all oral traditions are also eligible. In addition, to meet the above definition of a professional artist, they must have been paid for their work.
Translators are eligible if they have completed a degree in translation or have had at least one literary translation published by a recognized publisher.
Professional literary performers, spoken word artists or storytellers are eligible to apply to this program. In addition, to meet the above definition of a professional artist, they must have participated in literary performance, spoken word or storytelling festivals and events and have been paid in the past for their public literary performances.
Restrictions
Playwrights may need to apply to the Travel Grants to Theatre Artists program if the event is not tied to a book launch or the type of event listed above.
Screenwriters need to refer to the Travel Grants to Media Arts Professionals program.
Eligible activities
Applications may include more than one destination as long as they are part of one trip (for example, travel from Toronto to the USA for one event and then to Europe for another, and return.) Applicants travelling to eligible events in multiple destinations must explain the reason and the costs requested for each travel portion.
All eligible activities must be literary in nature.
Travel grants are for the following specific situations:
- participating in a large literary international festival abroad
- attending a writer’s residency in Canada or abroad
- attending a foreign book launch of an eligible literary work by a foreign publisher
- receiving a prize or official international honours awarded by an organization abroad
- being the guest of honour at an important book fair abroad
- being a keynote speaker at a literary conference abroad.
For professional literary performance, spoken word and storytelling artists:
- attending a showcase
- attending a one-off performance at a key festival
- attending a writer’s residency in Canada or abroad.
Ineligible activities
The following activities are not eligible:
- travel related to self-published and privately printed publications, as well as writing published in community newspapers, free or student magazines, or newsletters of associations or other organizations
- activities related to cookbooks, bibliographies, guides, manuals, indexes, catalogues, books on personal growth or practical works, reference or technical works, and commissioned works
- attendance at academic events and conferences
- attendance at conventions, congresses, symposiums and other similar events
- attendance at book fairs (unless the artist is a guest of honour at an important book fair abroad)
- promotional tours, literary readings or performance tours (unless they are tied to a foreign book launch or part of a large festival or event program abroad)
- book launches in Canada (eligible publishers may apply for support from the Book Publishing Support: Author Promotion Tours program)
- residencies for academic work or work toward a graduate or post-graduate degree
- writer’s workshops or other professional development workshops whose primary purpose is training or upgrading in arts administration
- travel related to research for a writing project
- travel related to research for the creation or production of a literary performance, or a spoken word and storytelling performance.
Grant Amount
You may apply for one of the following fixed amounts: $500, $750, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 or $2,500. The amounts of $2,000 and $2,500 are available only if you are travelling to or from northern Canada or to international destinations that are not in the United States or Europe. Grants contribute toward your travel costs, based on excursion fares.
These grants cannot be used for travel that occurs before the date that the application is submitted.
Travel allowances are based on the most economical available fares from applicants’ place of residence to the location where their project is taking place.
The Canada Council for the Arts will fund projects that also receive funding from other public or private organizations, but not to cover the same expenses.
Application Form
Or
Further Information
Marion Vitrac
Program Officer
Writing and Publishing Section
Canada Council for the Arts
P.O. Box 1047, 350 Albert Street
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5537
TTY: 1-866-585-5559
May 2012