Fellowships and Stipends
Alumni Residency Fellowship
This Fellowship offers a graduate of our program the opportunity to once again experience the inspiration and instruction of the residency and to enjoy the stimulus and camaraderie of this unique community of writers, while serving an essential role in documenting the residency’s offerings.
Responsibilities, qualifications, and application information is provided below. Please note that Alumni Residency Fellows are often scheduled well in advance. We’ll welcome your expression of interest at any time.
Responsibilities:
Responsibilities of the Residency Fellow include recording each lecture, class, and reading that takes place during the residency, downloading the recordings to the computer and editing as needed. The Fellow will also assist with the audio set-up at the readings and other staffing duties as needed.
Qualifications:
Applicants must have graduated from the program at least a year prior to the residency for which they’re applying. The demands of the position require good humor, discretion, and stamina, as well as organizational and, ideally, technological skills. Technological aptitude is central to the role; while we can train as needed, we welcome those who would bring some familiarity and ease with the processes involved in the recording aspects of this position.
Compensation:
In addition to being able to attend lectures, readings, and classes, the Residency Fellow will receive a dorm room and board, and a stipend of $1000 to offset travel costs.
How to apply:
Please email a letter of interest to the Director, Debra Allbery ([email protected]), including the following information:
- when you graduated from the program
- your reasons for applying for the fellowship
- your experiences/skills/ personality traits that make you a great candidate for this position.
- Availability for residencies over the next two years. Alumni Residency Fellows are often determined well in advance.
The Larry Levis Post-Graduate Stipend
Two Larry Levis Post-Graduate Stipends, one in fiction and one in poetry, are awarded annually to support graduates of the MFA Program for Writers who are completing first books. Deadlines and award amounts are announced each August on the Friends of Writers blog (www.friendsofwriters.org); the submission period typically opens in in September, with winners announced the following January. Judges are announced with the winning manuscripts.
About Larry Levis
Larry Levis (1946-1996) was an award-winning poet who wrote six books of poetry during his lifetime. His collection, Elegy, was published posthumously. A Selected Poems was published in 2000. The Darkening Trapeze, a collection of last poems, was published in 2016. Levis was a much-beloved member of the faculty at the MFA Program for Writers, cherished as much for his incisive mind as for the care and attention he gave to his students.
Two Larry Levis Post-Graduate Stipends, one in fiction and one in poetry, are awarded annually to support graduates of the MFA Program for Writers who are completing first books. The Levis Stipends are open only to Program alumni who have not yet published a full-length collection in the selected genre in a standard edition.
Deadlines, guidelines, and award amounts are announced each August on the Friends of Writers blog (www.friendsofwriters.org). Applications are submitted through Submittable. The submission period typically opens in in September, with winners announced the following January. Manuscripts are judged blindly by writers not associated with the MFA Program for Writers. Judges are announced with the winning manuscripts.
Please refer to the Friends of Writers blog for complete guidelines, deadlines, and all other submission information.
Volunteer Opportunities
Friends of Writers, supporting the The MFA Program for Writers community, has long depended on the active support and hard work of alumni volunteers, who have overseen and directed the Alum Conference, put out email blasts, compiled and updated the alum bibliography, served as class agents for the graduating class, helped with the Gala auctions, distributed newsletters, hosted fund-raising “Feasts,” contacted prospective students, and more.
The Board has many new projects underway as we reach out to our community through our blog and redesigned website, publicize the archived craft lectures, and continue to build our scholarship funds for current and future MFA students. WE NEED YOUR HELP with our expanded and increasingly techno-savvy activities.
The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College
701 Warren Wilson Rd. Swannanoa, NC 28778
[email protected] (828) 771-3715