PEN/Bare Life Review Grants

Overview

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

Founded in 1922, PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 centers worldwide that make up the PEN International network. PEN America works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. Our strength is our Membership—a nationwide community of more than 4,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, as well as devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission.

PEN America’s programs defend writers, artists, and journalists and protect free expression worldwide. This work includes research and reports on topical issues; advocacy on free expression challenges; campaigns on policy issues and on behalf of individual writers and journalists under threat; year-round festivals and events; literary awards; fellowships; and more.

PEN America, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. and chapters in 10 regions.

PEN/Bare Life Review Grants

The PEN/Bare Life Review Grants support literary works in progress by immigrant and refugee writers, recognizing that the literature of migration is of inherent and manifest value. Beginning with the 2024 grant conferral, PEN America will confer two PEN/Bare Life Review Grants of $5,000 each.

The grants are made possible by a substantial contribution from The Bare Life Review, which celebrates world literature and has been a champion for migrant and diasporic arts.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

* The submitted project must be the work of a single individual, written in or translated into English.
* In the case of translated works, the grant will be conferred to the original author.
* The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2026, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.
* The project must be a work of a literary nature: fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry.
* This grant is available to foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and to writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status.
* Writers may only submit one project per year.
* Physical entries are accepted only from adults incarcerated in a federal or state prison, county jail, or other detention center.
* Submissions postmarked between April 1, 2025 and May 15, 2025 will be considered.

Ineligibility

* Scholarly or academic writing.
* If you are a writer on the outside and send a physical submission, it will be returned unread.