This list of publishers meet our guiding principles, but are only open to free submissions from historically underrepresented writers or focus on publishing content produced by historically underrepresented writers. Some of these publications are open to a wide range of writers including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, and those living with disabilities. Some have limited definitions and are only interested in work by Black authors. We try to make it as clear as possible who the publisher is seeking work from. Sometimes the focus of the press is limited, even though there are no limitations on who can submit. A few of the opportunities are also limited by geography, again, we try to make this clear.
As long as a press/opportunity/journal is open to submissions we will continue to list it, so some of the content on the list is new, some overlaps from the previous month. This article is an ongoing collaborative effort by Emily Harstone and S. Kalekar. Please send us an email at support@authorspublish.com if you have any feedback or an opportunity/journal/publisher, to recommend.
Each month we’ve been featuring a different resource for underrepresented writers. BIPOC Bookshelf is a wonderful and extensive database of BIPOC editors and agents.
Journals/Magazines
The Common
A new but respected literary journal that publishes stories, essays, poems, and dispatches, and pays their authors. The Common generally charges submission fees, but for two weeks every summer they offer fee-free submissions for BIPOC writers. This year’s fee-free period has already started, and will end on 27 June.
The Willowherb Review
This UK-based magazine only publishes nature writing by writers of color anywhere in the world (often termed BAME or BIPOC). They want nonfiction especially, but they consider fiction and poetry as well — on nature, place, and environment. “If you’re unsure if your piece fits the bill, let’s just say we believe nature writing can tackle all sorts of issues: from stories of farming to long treks, tales of migration, racism, community, and beauty. You might be writing about remote places, cities, lost landscapes, or old homes. We’re looking forward to seeing what matters most to emerging nature writers. Above all, your submission should have a great sense of place and attention to the natural world.” They do not want literary criticism. Length guidelines are up to 3,000 words for prose, and up to 3 poems. Pay is £100 for poetry and £250 for prose. The deadline is 30 June 2022.
(Also see the UEA/Willowherb Speculative Nature Writing Call for Essay Proposals under the Opportunities/ Support subhead, below).
Spoonie Magazine
Spoonie Magazine is a new weekly digital publication; they published their first volume in June 2022. “We want art, articles, poetry, and prose by disabled, chronically ill, and / or neurodivergent individuals (or their loved ones) that engages with these topics in some way. We’re not looking for any specific form or perspective; we’re looking for honesty.” They publish art, articles, poetry, and prose (including fiction and creative nonfiction). While they are always open for submissions, work sent from February to April and August to October are also considered for Spoonie Journal, their bi-annual print/digital publication.
Bad Form
They only publish writers of color. Their website says, “Bad Form is a books magazine. That means we write a lot about books – everything from book reviews, to reading lists, to opinion pieces about the publishing industry. The world of literary reviews is a pale and stale place, and we’re here to fuck it up with a lot of colour.” They have a website and a print magazine. You can view their articles here. For the website, they accept pitches for literary essays, long-form reviews, reading lists and features. Also, “We open regularly for submissions to our print issues. We’ll advertise this across our socials and website so you know when to pitch. We take literary essays, interviews, reviews and short stories for our print issue.” Pay is a small honorarium. Details here (guidelines) and here (Masthead).
FIYAH: Hauntings & Horrors
This speculative fiction magazine only takes submissions by and about Black writers from Africa and the African Diaspora (see guidelines). They are reading for the Hauntings & Horrors theme. For nonfiction, they want queries only. They also publish reviews. The theme guidelines say, “We’re turning October into Black Horror Month. Give us your night terrors, your blood-thirsty urban legends, your ancestral ghosts haunting plantation weddings. We want stories that linger in dark corners and aren’t afraid to follow us into daylight.” Length guidelines are 2,000-15,000 words for fiction, up to 1,000 words for poetry, and 800-1,200 word for nonfiction. Pay is $0.08/word for fiction, $50 for poetry, and $0.10/word for nonfiction. The deadline is 31 July 2022.
Paste Magazine: Queer tech writers call
Paste Magazine publishes articles about music, movies, TV, comedy, games, books, politics, drinks, tech, and travel. Their Tech Editor has Tweeted, “Putting out a call to queer tech writers. Pitch me stories on queer and non-queer topics in tech and internet culture. This isn’t just for #Pride month, but things are definitely going to hit harder over the next 30 days.” You can see the Masthead here, and the Tweet here.
The Lighthouse / Black Girl Projects
The tagline of The Lighthouse is, “Cultivating spaces of solidarity and safety for southern Black girls to shine through focused programming and research.” They have an extensive guide for pitching articles, including “We … are always looking for thought-provoking stories and other content from marginalized communities, Black girls, (in particular, but not exclusively) and gender non-conforming people. In addition to story and long-form story pitches and op-eds, they accept photography and original artwork for their online blogging platform, The Black Girl Times, and their monthly newsletter, The Black Girl Times Redux. Also, “Each month, we have an editorial theme board (kind of like the mood boards interior designers use) we post on our social media accounts (@luvblkgrls). The theme board is intended to be an inspiration and provocation of thoughts, ideas and feelings. Your response(s) can be literal or abstract and loose. And again, it might not have anything to do with anything we’ve seen.” Pay is $0.10-0.75/word, which averages out to about $200-1,250 per story. Pay for art (graphic design, cartoons and photo essays) is $150-1,000.
Tasavvur
This is a new speculative fiction magazine for South Asian and BIPOC writers. They accept speculative fiction, and for their third issue, they are accepting fiction and pitches for nonfiction. Pay is $100 for commissioned nonfiction, and for fiction, it is 2.5c/word, up to 5,000 words. The submission deadline is 1 July 2022. Details here, here (Tweets) and here (submission guidelines).
Under a Warm Green Linden: Issue 14, Indigenous Ecopoetry
This magazine, from Green Linden Press, “invites Indigenous writers to submit poems for a special issue to be published in December 2022. We are interested in poems that illustrate, redefine, or reimagine relationships—land, nature, culture, history—to expand the possibilities of ecopoetics.” Send up to 5 poems. The deadline is 15 November 2022.
(Green Linden Press has another fee-free project, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry – details in the Presses/Anthologies section below.)
Jaggery
They publish fiction, essays & interviews, poetry, and reviews. The magazine “connects South Asian diasporic writers and homeland writers; we also welcome non-South Asians with a deep and thoughtful connection to South Asian countries, who bring their own intersecting perspectives to the conversation. (By South Asia we mean Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.) Our hope with Jaggery is to create a journal that offers the best writing by and about South Asians and their diaspora”, according to their guidelines. They pay $100 for fiction and $25 for other genres. The deadline is 17 July 2022.
Singapore Unbound: SUSPECT
Their website says, “SUSPECT grew out of SP Blog, the blog of the NYC-based literary non-profit Singapore Unbound.” They want poetry, literary fiction, essays, and any kind of writings that do not fall into these categories, written or translated into English by authors who identify as Asian. They also publish reviews of books by Asian authors and interviews with Asian writers and artists. Pay is $100, and there is no deadline listed. (They also have an award for undergraduate critical essays on Singapore and other literatures, three prizes of $250 each, deadline 31 July 2022).
Nightlight
This is a horror fiction podcast featuring Black writers all over the world (at least one of your birth parents must be Black). Their reading periods this year are February-June, and August-October. They also accept reprints. At the time of writing, they were also looking for story performers. Length is up to 10,000 words. Pay is $75 for stories up to 3,000 words, and $200 for stories of over 3,000 words. The deadline is 30 June 2022.
Puerto del Sol
A highly respected literary journal funded by New Mexico State University, Puerto Del Sol has an ongoing Black Voices Series featured on their website.
Sine Theta
A print creative arts magazine featuring work by people who are part of the Sino diaspora. They define this as “people of Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, or Macau heritage, who live anywhere away from the original ‘homeland’ of that heritage.” Submitters need not know Chinese. They pay an honorarium if $10 per contributor.
Alebrijes Review
They bill themselves as an “indie Latino literary magazine dedicated to art that is colorful, whimsical, and monstrous.” They try to respond to all submissions within a month.
Hyphen Magazine
Their tagline is “Asian America Unabridged”, and their primary audience is Asian Americans in their 20s and mid 30s. They publish a wide range of work including but not limited to creative nonfiction, original fiction, original poetry, as well as articles pertaining to news, politics, and social justice. They pay $25 per published piece. They are only open to submissions by Asian Americans. They have detailed submission guidelines, please read them carefully.
Breath & Shadow
Breath & Shadow only publishes work from people with disabilities. This is how they define disability: “We use the term “disability” broadly to encompass anyone with a physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, or sensory impairment that significantly affects one or more major life functions. ” They accept writing on any topic in terms of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and drama. Pieces do not have to be about disability. The academic or article type nonfiction, including profiles, interviews, and opinion pieces, do have to relate to disability in some way. They pay $20 for poetry and $30 for prose.
Screen Door Review
They only publish work by individuals who are Southern and queer. You can learn more about how they define Southern here. They publish flash fiction and poetry.
Emergent Literary
An exciting new literary journal that accepts a wide range of submissions from Black and Brown authors.
Fairy Tale Review: The Rainbow Issue
They want queer fairy tales written by queer writers for this issue. They want prose (fiction and nonfiction – up to 6,000 words), poetry (up to 4 poems), graphic novels, comics, drama, and artwork. Pay is $50, and the deadline is 30 June 2022.
LatinX Lit Audio Mag
LatinX Lit Mag is a safe space for literary work written by authors who identify as Latinx or Hispanic.
Split Lip Magazine
They favor interesting, literary narratives with a modern, pop culture appeal. They publish online monthly and in print annually – flash fiction, short stories, memoir, poetry, and art, as well as interviews and reviews (for interviews and reviews, query first via webform – see guidelines). Send up to 3,000 words for fiction, up to 2,000 words for memoir, or one poem. Pay is $50 for web contributions, $5/page for print, $25 for reviews and interviews. Fee-free submissions are sometimes closed earlier, if their Submittable cap is reached. Fee-free submissions for all writers are in May, August, September, and November. Fee-free submissions for Black writers are open till end-June.
Haven Speculative
They publish speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations; they are open for submissions from all writers, and for submissions by underrepresented writers, during alternate months. “Our submission cycle is … split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone.” They publish two themed issues yearly on climate emergency. The Wet issue, published in September, focuses “on stories of water—monsoons and the rising tides, hurricanes and the disappearing coast”. The Dry issue, published in March, relates to “dry aspects of climate change—desertification and falling reservoirs, rising temperatures and endless droughts.” Stories by climate refugees are welcome. They have no deadlines specified for their themed issues. “To submit a story for the theme, make sure to mention in your cover letter how your submission relates to the theme and, if you’d like, how you’ve been personally affected by the crisis at hand.” For their four unthemed issues, they are open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. Length guidelines are up to 6,000 words for fiction, up to 3,000 words for nonfiction, and poems of any length. Pay is $5-10 for poetry, and $0.01/word for prose. Windows for underrepresented writers are May, July, September, and November.
beestung: Trans is the future, the future is Trans
beestung is an online micro-magazine from Sundress Publishing that is intended for non-binary and two-spirit writers and readers, with an emphasis on intracommunity sensibilities. They publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, hybrids, and art, and pay $20. Their general submission guidelines are here. They’re reading submissions for a special issue, ‘Trans in the future, the future is Trans’, until 5 July 2022.
Midnight & Indigo
They publish work by Black women writers only. Their current open calls are for fiction, speculative fiction/horror, and nonfiction. They want character-driven fiction: “All genres are welcome. Subject matter and plots can run the gamut, but we want emotion, grit, soul, and writing that forges an immediate connection with the reader.” For speculative fiction, they want work that “includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, superhero fiction, horror, utopian and dystopian fiction, fairytale fantasy, and supernatural fiction.” They also publish first-person POV narrative and personal essays: “Essays can be funny, entertaining, serious, or sincere. Content must uplift, inspire and leave readers with something to think about. We want emotion, grit, soul, and writing that forges an immediate connection with the reader around your experience. Submissions cannot include list formats or “5 Ways to…” inspirational instructionals.” They do not publish poetry. Pay is $50 for short fiction published online, $100 for short fiction published in the print magazine, additional $125 if accepted for print anthology, and $50 for essays. For speculative fiction, the deadline is 30 July 2022. Book reviews focused on works by Black women authors are accepted year-round.
Snarl
This magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions from creators of marginalized identities only: “We are looking for writers and artists who have been marginalized due to their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, and/or disability. We seek to publish and promote queer writers, black writers, writers of color, trans writers, native writers, undocumented writers, disabled writers, impoverished, and incarcerated writers.” (See their FAQ section for details). Send up to 8,000 words of prose, or up to 5 poems. Pay is $25 for flash & micro, $50-$75 for longer prose; $15/poem, plus $5 per additional printed page.
Future SF Digest
This speculative fiction magazine publishes only translated fiction, and fiction written by authors for whom English is not their first language and who reside outside of primarily English-speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland). They also accept nonfiction pitches. Send 500-10,000 words for fiction (under 5,000 words strongly preferred). Pay is $0.08/word for fiction (for translations, this is split between author and translator), and $0.01/word for nonfiction.
smoke and mold: Across/With/Through–Trans Writers in Translation
smoke and mold is a magazine of trans and Two-Spirit nature writing. You can read more about them here and see their Twitter feed here. “The journal will publish 24 issues: 2 each year for 12 years — the amount of time allotted us by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” For the current submission call, Across/With/Through – Trans Writers in Translation, they say, “The root of this issue is simple: a desire to see more work from trans writers working in a language other than English. How are writers around the globe bending their tools of story and language to push at the strictures and structures of categories, from genre to gender? What is left out of “trans literature” when the only authors included are those working primarily in English? And who are Western audiences missing out on because they aren’t considered “trans enough” in a framework of colonial gender norms reinforced by centuries of war, white supremacy, and eugenics? … We look forward to introducing readers to voices they didn’t know they were missing in our spirit of small, focused issues devoted to uplifting trans writers working today at the intersection of place, geography, land and language.” Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis from authors, translators, and teams working together, with publication in spring 2023. Pay is $100.
Presses/Anthologies
Rural Writers of Color Fiction Anthology
This is a call from EastOver Press, for a reprint anthology by BIPOC writers who live in or hail from rural or semi-rural locales in the US and whose short stories feature characters living and/or working in rural or semi-rural spaces. Pay is $100-300. There is no deadline listed.
Green Linden Press: Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry
They’re reading poetry by queer US writers for this anthology. “The Essential Voices anthology series intends to make less insular the various poetries of the world, to bridge readers to cultures misunderstood and under- or misrepresented. It has at its heart the ancient idea that poetry can unite us by revealing our shared humanity. This anthology, the second in the series, will feature new or recent poetry by living queer U.S. poets. (We’re using “queer” in the broad sense: people who live outside mainstream sexual and gender norms.)” Send up to 6 pages of poems; they also accept reprints. They also have other submission categories, both paid and fee-free. Click on the ‘Guidelines’ section for this anthology on the press’s Submittable page, for details. The deadline is 1 October 2022, for this anthology.(Green Linden Press has another fee-free project, Under a Warm Green Linden: Issue 14, Indigenous Ecopoetry – details in the Journals/Magazines section above.)
Fifth Wheel Press: The Truth is in the Stars
Fifth Wheel press is an independent community-focused publisher of art and writing by queer, trans, and gender non-conforming creatives, and The Truth is in The Stats is their biannual digital anthology. They are only open to submissions of writing by queer, trans, and gender non-conforming individuals. Make sure to read and follow their complete guidelines before submitting. They pay $10 per piece and close to submissions for their digital anthology on 30 June, but have other opportunities to submit.
Bold Strokes Books: BIPOC Publishing initiative
This established LGBTQ+ publisher started a BIPOC publishing initiative. This is their commitment “If you are an author who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color, we welcome you to submit your manuscripts to Bold Strokes Books. We guarantee to publish every manuscript that meets our publishing criteria, subject to contract agreement. We guarantee we will publish these within twelve months of date of contract. In addition, we will choose ten additional manuscripts deemed publishable after revisions and provide a full manuscript critique. We will look favorably upon resubmission, although not required.”
Sovereign: An Anthology of Black Fantasy Fiction
This is a project by Pride, which runs the Aurealia Leo imprint. For their ‘Sovereign’ anthology, they want stories by Black writers only, from Africa and the African Diaspora. They want works from flash to novella-length. The sub-genres are: Heroic; Mythic; Flintlock; Gaslamp; Medieval; Religious; Weird West; Arcanepunk; High/Epic Fantasy; Sword and Soul/Planet; Noblebright/Nobledark; Fables/Fairytale Retellings. They also accept reprints. They will accept up to two submissions from writers – one original fiction, and one reprint. Length is 1,000-39,999 words, and they pay $0.08/word for the first 1,000 words, $0.01/word thereafter. The deadline is 16 July 2022, or until filled.
Mad Creek Books
Mad Creek Books is the literary trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press. With a mission to foster creativity, innovate, and illuminate, Mad Creek Books champions diverse and creative literary nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. They are currently open to fee-free submissions for their Machete nonfiction series and their Latinographix series.
Arsenal Pulp Press
A Canadian independent press that publishes a wide variety of work prioritizes work by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors. We have reviewed them here.
Blind Eye Books
Blind Eye Books publishes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists. They are a print publisher and their book covers are beautifully designed and really stand out. The books they have published have won and been nominated for a number of awards, including the Lambda. We have reviewed them here.
Flashpoint Publications
They historically specialized in publishing books of interest to lesbian readers but their focus expanded a while ago to include LGBTQ+ work. They have been using their re-branded name of Flashpoint Publications for over a year now. They mostly publish popular fiction, but they have also published short stories, essays, and anthologies. They have a nonfiction imprint as well. We have reviewed them here.
Alternating Currents
A small publisher that charges a $6.99 submission fee for all authors except Black and Native American writers. Please note that they close submissions when they reach their monthly Submittable submissions cap. Submit early in the month.
Lily
A small poetry press that publishes work of varying length. Submitting shorter work is free for everyone, but submitting poetry manuscripts is free only for poets who identify as Black. They are always open to these submissions.
Sourcebooks
We’ve reviewed Sourcebooks here, and their adult nonfiction imprint and their romance imprint are always open to all submissions, but they also deserve to be on this list because their fiction imprint, their mystery imprint, their young adult imprint, and three of their children’s book imprints, all say “Our submissions are currently CLOSED to unagented projects, with the exception of works that directly promote diversity, equality and inclusion. For more information please email InclusiveFiction@Sourcebooks.com.” So if you have work that matches that description in those genres, please reach out to them.
Forever
The romance imprint of Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publishing is open to direct submissions from BIPOC-identifying authors.
Heartdrum
Heartdrum is an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, which is edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, and is in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Native and First Nations writers and writer-illustrators are welcome to query her directly via a form on her website. Native and First Nations illustrators are also invited to reach out.
Scholastic Canada
They are open to direct submissions from Canadian authors or focusing on Canadian content, who are from underrepresented communities, including Black writers, Indigenous writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ writers and writers who identify with other marginalized groups.
Angry Robot
A great science fiction publisher that only accepts direct submissions from Black authors.
Opportunities/Support/Contests
The Madeleine Milburn Mentorship Programme
This six-month writing mentorship for aspiring authors was established in 2020 in order to support new writers. For the first time all six writers will come from underrepresented communities. Based in the UK, the MM Agency is known internationally for launching debut authors’ careers by negotiating significant deals. The program is open to writers regardless of geographic location. Writers must apply by 5:50 PM BST on 31 July 2022. Complete details of what the mentorship involves and feedback from past mentees are available on the site.
Black Voices in Children’s Literature
Black Voices in Children’s Literature a contest for US-based Black writers run by Strive Publishing and Free Spirit Publishing. They want children’s stories by and about Black people. The contest will run from 19 June to 24 July 2022. The prizes include cash – $1,000, $500, and $250.
UEA/Willowherb Speculative Nature Writing Call for Essay Proposals
The Willowherb Review, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, are offering a mentorship and publishing opportunity for three writers of colour who have yet to publish a book, in the field of nature writing. “The authors selected will be supported with online meetings and editorial feedback over the second half of 2022 as they complete an innovative nature writing essay for publication. The finished essay will be illustrated and published as an attractive pamphlet by the UEA Publishing Project and launched at a symposium on ‘Decolonising Nature Writing’ in April 2023.” As part of the applications, writers have to send a pitch for the nature writing essay idea (250 words), and a short writing sample (500 words). “Once you have been selected, non-fiction editors at The Willowherb Review will offer mentorship from August to November 2022, with the aim of delivering the finished essays by the end of November. Final essays will be between 3,000-5,000 words. We especially welcome ideas that are engaged with fresh ways of thinking about landscape, wildlife and nature writing as a genre—particularly pieces that blur the borders between literary and academic ways of thinking.” The deadline is 15 July 2022.(Also see The Willowherb Review general submission call under the Journals/Magazines subhead, above.)
BIPOC Writers Connect
BIPOC Writers Connect is a free event hosted by the Writers’ Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets. Sponsors include Penguin Random House Canada, Writers’ Trust of Canada and Historic Joy Kogawa House. The program includes manuscript evaluation and mentorship, networking, and more. Advance application is required. Applications are open until Friday, 8 July 2022, at 11:59 pm PDT.
Speculative Literature Foundation: Diverse Writers/Diverse Worlds GrantsThese grants will open in July. The Diverse Writers grant is to support new and emerging writers of speculative fiction from underrepresented groups, including writers of color, disabled, women or working-class writers. The Diverse Worlds grant is for work that best represents a diverse world, irrespective of the writer’s background. Writers may apply for one or both grants. The project must be a proposed book-length work of speculative fiction (novels, short story collections). Nonfiction, poetry, picture books, and editorial projects are not currently eligible. These grants are $500 each, and the application period is 1-31 July 2022.Also see the schedule for all their grants here – there is the Working Class Writers Grant during September; the Gulliver Travel Research Grant during November; and the A.C. Bose Grant for a South Asian/South Asian diaspora writer in January 2023.
The Ann Petry Award
This is for a work of previously unpublished prose, either a novel or a collection of short stories or novellas, with a 25,000-word minimum (approximately 150 pages) by a Black writer. The award is a residency, $3,000, and publication. The deadline is 31 July 2022.
Faber Children’s: Faber and Andlyn BAME (FAB) Prize
This is for undiscovered BAME writers and illustrators in the UK or Ireland. Entrants must be of black, Asian or minority ethnic background and UK- or Ireland-based. For writers, they want a maximum of 5,000 words of text (no minimum word count). Entries must be text or artwork for children. Prizes are £1,500 each for a writer and an illustrator, and mentorship. The deadline is 17 June 2022. You can read more details about the prize, for both writers and illustrators, here.
The Writing Barn Scholarship
The Writing Barn has a small but budding scholarship program available for our programming. Scholarships are awarded on the following criteria: seriousness of purpose, talent and financial need. They also offer specific Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity scholarships for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Neurodiverse writers, and writers with disabilities.
Emergency Fund for Diverse Creatives and Educators
WNDB provides emergency grants to diverse authors, illustrators, publishing professionals, and K-12 educators who are experiencing dire financial need. They aim to bolster these marginalized groups by giving grants between $500 and $1,000 each.
BIPOC scholarship for Emily Harstone’s classes at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish
Each time Emily Harstone offers a class through the Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish, there is now an opportunity for a writer (or two) who identifies as BIPOC to take it for free.
Forward Funds: Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Creator Fund
The crowdsourcing platform for creatives, Kickstarter, now has Forward Funds. Their website says, “Forward Funders are foundations, nonprofits, and organizations that back Kickstarter campaigns related to their visions and missions around a more creative and equitable world. Each Forward Funder makes a public commitment and then backs projects just like anyone else—through single pledges that bring the works one step closer to reality.” One such fund is the $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund. This backs projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators in the US on the crowdfunding platform – “Effective immediately, funds will be awarded on an ongoing basis to creators with active projects across all of Kickstarter’s categories: Arts, Comics & Illustration, Design & Tech, Film, Food & Craft, Games, Music, and Publishing.” Projects launched on Kickstarter following their rules are eligible, and creators can nominate themselves for specific Forward Funds via a form. This is for both, creators and organizations.
(So far, there is one other Forward Funder: Japanese publishing company Kodansha; it “support artists, designers, makers, and creators of all kinds from around the world. With a $50,000 fund they opt for more backings of slightly smaller amounts—they have been able to support over 100 creators so far.”)
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
