Grants & Fellowships

Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards, Grants, and Fellowships Program has honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, children’s literature, translation, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers distinct grants each year to support writers and works-in-progress in diverse genres including translation, YA and middle grade writing, and oral history. PEN America also offers a robust national program of fellowships for emerging writers and writing for justice. In addition, PEN America provides community engagement funding to Members, writers, and allies to support activity around press freedom defense, the intersections of literature and advocacy, and the defense of free expression more broadly.