March 2019

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Creative Sonoma will award five grants to literary artists this year as part of the Discovered Awards: Emerging Artists program. These grants are an expansion of an existing program that has previously recognized emerging visual artists in the County. Sonoma is home to an extensive community of writers, across all genres and disciplines, and we are delighted that the NEA grant has made it possible for us to call attention to this rich group of creatives.

The initiative will recognize five visual and five literary artists whose careers are on the cusp of breaking through. “Emerging” literary artists are defined as individuals who have not published a book, including eBooks, translations, books in other languages/countries, self-published works, and chapbooks with print runs of more than 300, and who have no book forthcoming before June 30, 2020. Grant awards will be $2500 each, and will also include a professionally produced publication of excerpts of all five winners’ works, in conjunction with work samples from the five winning visual artists. Additionally, winners will read from their work during the Discovered Awards exhibition, scheduled for November-December 2019 at the Museum of Sonoma County. 

Applicants must be residents of Sonoma County, age 21 or older and cannot be currently enrolled students. The deadline for application is Friday, April 12, 2019. For more information on how to apply, as well as information on the information sessions, please click HERE.

The visual arts component of the Discovered program is funded by Community Foundation Sonoma County.