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.

Requirements

• 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• The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress that will not be published prior to April 1, 2026, as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.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.

NOT eligible: Scholarly or academic writing.

Application Instructions