Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History

Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: PEN America
Amount: US $15,000
Last Updated: April 26, 2025

Summary

The PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History support unique works of nonfiction that utilize oral history to shed light on significant events, individuals, or movements. With a focus on unpublished works-in-progress, these grants encourage literary excellence and are awarded to individual authors. Each grant offers $15,000 to foster the completion of impactful narratives. This initiative highlights the importance of oral history in literary nonfiction, with past recipients including notable writers such as Nyssa Chow and Aleksandar Hemon.

Overview

PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History The PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History recognize literary works of nonfiction that use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. Past winners include Sharony Green, Loida Maritza Pérez, Nyssa Chow, and Aleksandar Hemon. We're pleased to announce that beginning with the 2021 grant conferral, we will confer two PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History with increased cash prizes of $15,000 each. All of the submission materials and guidelines will remain the same.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Who Is Eligible:The submitted project must be the work of a single individual, written in English. The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2026, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a final book. The project must be a work of literary nonfiction. Oral history must be a significant component of the project and its research.

Ineligibility

Scholarly or academic writing.