For the first time, Canadian nonfiction writers will be eligible to apply for a major American grant, as the annual $40,000 (U.S.) Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant expands its eligibility criteria to include Canadians.

The grant was launched in 2016 by the Whiting Foundation, an American organization that supports writers and scholars, to support writers working on multi-year, book-length nonfiction projects.

Previous winners include Sarah M. Broom, whose book The Yellow House (Grove, 2019) went on to win a National Book Award, and Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Andrea Elliot, whose book The Invisible Child was published by Random House last year.

“We know that writers everywhere are confronting the same things they are here [in the U.S.], which is a shortfall of time and resources when they work on deeply reported or deeply researched books,” says Courtney Hodell, director of literary programs at the Whiting Foundation. “We find ourselves in this position where we have the resources, we have the curiosity, we have the belief in the writers’ needs, and so we are taking these sort of slow steps to expand in a more international way.”

Hodell says the only thing the foundation is hoping to see by expanding this year into Canada and the U.K. is “superb writing.”

“We just have such respect for the writing traditions [in Canada] and the literary culture, so we’re thrilled that we have these resources,” Hodell said. 

Writers with a signed contract from a Canadian, U.S., or U.K. publisher are eligible to apply. Submissions are evaluated in a two-stage reading process by anonymous judges.

The Whiting Foundation will be hosting two one-hour online information sessions on February 17 and March 16 where writers can ask any questions they may have about the application process. Submissions are due April 25, and the grant will be awarded to up to 10 writers. More information about the submission process is available on the foundation’s website.