A powerful, succinct artist statement is a 21st-century necessity for the most lucrative literary grant and fellowship applications. Often your only opportunity to demonstrate that you are a thoughtful, deliberate writer who takes your literary career seriously, this statement lends significant support to your funding applications. In this one-day workshop, you'll learn how to cast your work in its strongest, most evocative light.
• You'll read statement examples and learn how vetting committees use them.
• Through a series of exercises, you'll generate ideas on how to talk about your work.
• You'll craft, workshop, and revise your own statement.
• You'll explore grants, fellowships, and other funding opportunities appropriate for creative writers.
You’ll leave class with a statement that’s ready to impress! This class is open to writers of all genres, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, songwriting, and graphic novels.
Lyzette Wanzer’s work appears in over 30 literary journals, magazines, and books. Her book, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives appears on Library Journal’s 2022 Top 10 Best Social Sciences Books list and was a 2023 Black Women’s Studies Association selection. A contributor to Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth From the Margins, Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area, and the multi-award-winning The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays, Lyzette has had her work receive funding from the Awesome Foundation, Black Artist Foundry, California Arts Council, California Humanities (a National Endowment for the Humanities partner), the Center for Cultural Innovation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Vashon Artist Residency, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.