Home
Scholarships

Scholarships

2025 Scholarship Opportunities

Scholarship Dates:

Scholarship Application Deadline: March 1, 2025
Scholarship Notifications: Mid-March 2025
Deadline to Pay Tuition Balance: March 31, 2025

Register online and pay the $25 nonrefundable registration fee in order to process your application
Submit a personal statement of no more than one page, double-spaced, about why you want to attend the conference, what you hope to get out of the experience and address circumstances impacting your financial need.
Submit a manuscript based upon the genre in which you are applying. If you have registered for a Fiction or Creative Nonfiction Workshop, submit a prose manuscript (short story, multiple flash pieces, novel excerpt, essay) between 15 and 20 pages, double-spaced. If you have registered for Poetry Workshop, submit a manuscript between 8 and 10 pages of poems.
Please ensure that manuscripts have a header on each page of the submission that includes your name, manuscript title and page number; double-space the document and use 12-point, Times New Roman font.
E-mail both your personal statement and manuscript to us as .PDF or .DOC attachments at writecon@indiana.edu. Please use the e-mail subject header as “Scholarship: Your Last Name, Genre Manuscript” when sending to us.

Please note: you may submit one manuscript for scholarship consideration and another for the workshop.

Don Belton Fellow

Named in honor of writer and former Indiana University faculty member Don Belton and supported in part by Indiana University’s Department of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs, the Don Belton Fellows are selected based on manuscript submissions and are open to all poets and prose writers of color who wish to attend either of the conference’s workshops and classes.

Eligibility: All writers of color who wish to attend workshops and/or classes.

Sponsored by:
Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Multicultural Affairs

Herman B. Wells Fellow

Named for the 11th President of Indiana University and co-founder of the Indiana University Writers’ Conference, the Herman B. Wells Fellows are selected based on manuscript submissions and are open to poets and prose writers of all backgrounds who wish to attend the conference workshops and classes.

Eligibility: All writers who wish to attend workshops and/or classes.

Martha C. Kraft Scholar

The Martha C. Kraft Scholar is selected from current students of Indiana University who wish to attend the conference’s workshop and classes. It is awarded based on manuscript submissions and open to all Indiana University students who are enrolled during the conference’s calendar year. You must apply with an IU email address.

Eligibility: Currently enrolled Indiana University students.

Writers who have previously won an award are not eligible for these scholarships.

Joan Ryser Scholarship Award

The Writers Guild at Bloomington is proud to offer this Scholarship Award in memory of Joan Ryser, an English teacher at Bloomington High School South, who passed away in March 2017. Her directions to her family asked for memorial contributions to a non-profit literacy organization. The Writers Guild was honored to be the recipient of these contributions, and in response has established this scholarship to be awarded annually. Details at the Writers Guild website.

Eligibility: High school students, high school teachers, and Writers' Guild members.

Scholarship applications will open early in the fall.

How to Apply

If you are applying for a scholarship, you must pay the registration fee of $25.00 and begin the registration process. If you are selected for a full or partial scholarship, we will give you detailed instructions about how to proceed at that time. If you are not selected for a scholarship, you may pay the remaining balance. We are only able to guarantee enrollment in the workshops to those selected for scholarships and applicants who have paid in full.