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. This article published on Pragmatic Mom, is a great round up of resources for pre-published BIPOC/Minority Kid Lit authors.

Journals/Magazines

Apogee
This award-winning journal publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. Their website says, “Our purpose is threefold: (1) to publish fresh work that interrogates the aesthetic and political status quo, (2) to provide a platform for underrepresented voices, prioritizing artists and writers of color (3) to model more radical conversations and practices regarding equity and publishing.” The journal “engages with identity politics, including but not limited to: race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and intersectional identities.” Contributors to Apogee get $50-100. They are accepting nonfiction, fiction, and poetry during July for the journal. Please note, for fiction, you have to read what the editors look for and complete a Submitter Form, apart from submitting a manuscript (see guidelines). Details here and here. Details of flash submissions (up to 1,000 words, pays $50), interview and review pitches for their online platform are here.

Limelight Review
They Limelight Review is more inclined to uplift the voices of marginalized/disabled/neurodivergent writers, but will consider submissions from everybody. Writers must be 13+ to submit. They accept fiction (up to 1,500 words), creative nonfiction, and poetry. They will accept submissions until 1 August 2022 (see the pinned Tweet). They are reading for their pilot issue, which is unthemed.

ArabLit Quarterly: Weddings
Submission for ArabLit Quarterly magazine are open, and the theme is Weddings; they want fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and other interesting formats of works either in Arabic or translated from Arabic; they are also open to bilingual works in some formats. The final submission deadline is 7 August 2022. Pay is $20/page.
(Also see the ArabLit Story Prize in the Contests section.)

Fantasy Magazine
This magazine publishes fantasy and dark fantasy stories. They also welcome work previously rejected by their sister publications, Lightspeed and Nightmare magazines. Essays are by invitation only, though they do accept essay pitches. They also publish poetry. Length guidelines are up to 1,500 words for flash fiction, and 1,500-7,500 words for short fiction (up to 5,000 words preferred). Pay is $0.08/word for fiction, $10/poem, and $75/essay. Their next submission windows for all writers will be 21-27 July; they’re open for submissions by BIPOC writers throughout 2022 (dates subject to change).

Electric Lit: Both/And Essay Series
This award-winning magazine wants pitches for ‘Both/And’, an essay series focused on personal narratives from trans and gender non-conforming writers of color. They have detailed guidelines, including, “previous publication is not necessary for consideration. Pitches should center personal narrative and engage with any of the following themes and questions: Imagination as liberation; Coming to light, being seen; Balancing and/or integrating multiple, and sometimes conflicting identities; Trans lives and voices as transgressive; Heightened visibility and/or heightened invisibility; Trans joy, euphoria, or freedom; Trans anger, rage, or revenge. Additional ideas are welcome as befitting the spirit and themes of the series.” Pay is $500/essay, 5x their usual pay rate, and they will publish 12 essays in this series. They will accept pitches (do not send completed submissions) on an ongoing basis from 18 July to 31 August 2022.

Aloka
They want work by non-native English speakers only – poetry, translations, fiction, and hybrid work. Send up to 5 poems, or up to 2 prose pieces, up to 2,500 words each.

Poet Lore
Their tagline is, ‘America’s Oldest Poetry Journal’. “For our Summer/Fall 2022 issue, Guest Editor Taylor Byas will curate submissions from an open call for Black writers. Poems can be on any topic or theme and take any form the writer desires.
Please note again that this call is open for Black writers. We gladly accept submissions from all writers during our two general submission windows (April-May and October-November) each year.” They pay $50/poem. Submissions for this folio will be open for two weeks, from 25 July to 8 August 2022.

Rough Cut Press: Air
They publish work by LGBTQ+ artists – fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are open year-round, with cut-off dates for themed issues. They are reading submissions on the ‘Air’ theme. According to their website, “We seek personal, lyrical, critical, and experimental work in under 650 words.” Pay is $25. The deadline is 27 July 2022.

khōréō: Music
This magazine only accepts work (up to 5,000 words) by immigrant and diaspora authors. They want speculative fiction that explores “music and all its associated forms (sound, noise, song, instruments, etc. etc. etc.) as a vehicle for identity, culture, discovery, change, and any other facets of migration or diaspora.” Pay is $0.10/word. The deadline is 31 July 2022. Details here and here.

PodCastle: Indigenous Magic
This fantasy fiction podcast and online magazine from the Escape Artists suite of magazines is reading for an indigenous magic themed issue. “We want stories that center Black, Brown, and Indigenous cultures, histories, belief systems, philosophies, and perspectives. These are the stories of fireside tellings that are tied to the land on which they are written, the stories that reflect our cultural and historical trajectories in the wivestales and gossip on the tongues of our mothers and grandmothers. … It is important that these stories are told by the people they belong to. We respect the traditions they are drawn from and honour the need to make space for marginalized voices to tell their version of any given story. We welcome authors who are writing from indigenous perspectives that are within their realm of experience and personal history. If you’ve written a story about a culture that is not your own, please refrain from submitting it to this particular call.” They also accept reprints. Length: 2,000-6,000 words; and 2,000-7,000 words for reprints, for this issue. Pay is  $0.08/word. The deadline is 31 July 2022. Details here and here.

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.

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.

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.)

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).

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.

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.

LatinX Lit Audio Mag
LatinX Lit Mag is a safe space for literary work written by authors who identify as Latinx or Hispanic.

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  July, September, and November.

Midnight & Indigo
They publish work by Black women writers only. They are currently looking for short character-driven fiction in all genres, as well as speculative fiction, and first-person POV narrative and personal essays. Length guidelines are minimum 1,500 words for fiction, and minimum 1,200 words for nonfiction. Pay is $0.07/word for short fiction; $100 for speculative fiction published online, and $200 for speculative fiction published in other formats; and $100 for essays. The deadline is 30 July 2022. Book reviews focused on works by Black women authors are accepted year-round. (They are also accepting online teaching position enquiries, open until filled.)

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.

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.)

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.”

Sundress Publications
This established indie press is open for submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts. Manuscripts should be between 48 and 80 pages to be considered. There is a reading fee ($13) attached except for BIPOC writers. Submitters who are not BIPOC can also have the fee waived if they purchase or pre-order a title from Sundress. Any poet can submit their manuscript before 31 August 2022 to be considered.

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

Nickelodeon Writing Program
This is a full-time, paid, yearlong development program for television comedy writers with unique voices and from underrepresented communities. Writers have to be eligible to work in the US. Also, “The Nick Writing Program is not a writing contest – It’s a launching pad for diverse and emerging creatives. If you bring the unique voice and innovative ideas for kids’ and family content, we’ll help you launch a career with all the tools you’ll need to succeed in the industry for years to come.” Writers have to pick a focus – kids’ content (audience age 11-6), preschool content (audience age 2-6), and preteen/YA (audience age 11-17), and prepare scripts accordingly. All applicants must submit a spec script and original comedy pilot (see guidelines). The deadline is 1 August 2022.

Rebecca Swift Foundation: Women Poets’ Prize

This prize is awarded every two years to three women poets in the UK and North Ireland at all stages in their careers. One of the application requirements is three poems (text, video, or audio – see guidelines). They strongly encourage applications from poets belonging to marginalised or underrepresented communities. The poems can be previously published (see terms). The prize is £1,000.

The deadline is 14 August 2022.

Simon & Schuster: BOOKS LIKE US: First Novel Contest
Simon and Schuster is hosting it’s second annual BOOKS Like Us First Novel Contest to facilitate accessibility to underrepresented writers. The two-week entry period began on 12 July, and will end on the 25th of July. In January 2023, the author of the winning novel will be given the opportunity to enter into a $50,000 book deal with S&S.

2022 ArabLit Story Prize
This is an award for the best short stories, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English, of up to 4,000 words. Translators must have secured rights to the work, and the translations must have been previously unpublished. Stories will be judged primarily on the quality of the translated work as a thing-in-itself, although translators must also submit the Arabic original, as this must be a translation, not a loose adaptation nor a work written originally in English. The prize is $500, split between the author and translator, and the deadline is 25 July 2022.
(Also see the ArabLit callout on the Weddings theme, in the Literary magazines/journals section.)

Sisters in Crime: Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers
This is a grant for an emerging writer in the LGBTQIA+ community. It is for an unpublished work of crime fiction, aimed at readers from children’s chapter books through adults. This may be a short story or first chapter(s) of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words. An unpublished writer is preferred, but writers with publication of not more than 10 pieces of short fiction and/or up to 2 self-published or traditionally published books are also eligible. Also, winners and any runners-ups who wish to maintain their anonymity, may do so, or they may choose to select a pen name for announcements. The prize is  $2,000, and the deadline is 31 July 2022.

Lee & Low Books: New Visions Award
This award is by Tu Books, the middle grade and young adult imprint of Lee & Low Books. The award is for writers of color or  Indigenous/Native writers who are residents of the US, and have not previously had a middle grade or young adult novel traditionally published. Manuscripts may be fiction or narrative nonfiction for children ages 8 to 12 or young adults ages 12 to 18. Manuscripts should address the needs of children and teens of color and Native nations by providing stories with which they can identify and relate, and which promote a greater understanding of one another. They are interested in contemporary or historical fiction, literary fantasy, science fiction, mystery, suspense, and genre fusions. Graphic novel scripts and novels in verse for these categories are also welcome. Submissions should be of full, unagented manuscripts or graphic novel scripts plus synopsis. Middle grade novels are not to exceed 75,000 words in length; young adult novels are not to exceed 95,000 words in length. Graphic novels should not exceed 150 scripted pages. The first prize is $2,000 and a publishing contract; the second prize is $1,000. The deadline is 1 August 2022.

Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour
This is an annual prize jointly presented by Morley College London and the Rachel Mills Literary Agency, awarded to a previously unpublished aspiring author of colour in the UK/Ireland. For 2022, as well as being open for works of fiction, they have expanded to life writing and creative nonfiction categories. Apart from a cash prize of £500, the winner and shortlisted writers get editorial consultation with an agent. The deadline is 29 July 2022. Details here and here.

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.

British Guild Grant
The British Guild of Beer Writers and Good Beer Hunting are launching a new diversity grant open to U.K.-based writers and journalists, both current and aspiring.  The grant will highlight stories that celebrate diversity and inclusion within beer, pubs, and the wider hospitality industry. They are particularly interested in hearing from those who are not always well-represented within the broader beer landscape, including women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ people, and disabled people. We also welcome pitches from people who are new to, or seeking a career within, beer writing, brewing, pubs, and the drinks industry at large. Pitches are accepted until 1 August. Submissions should include a cover letter with information about you and why you’re applying, and at least one writing sample. Three winners will be awarded £350, and publication.

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.

Speculative Literature Foundation: Diverse Writers/Diverse Worlds Grants
These 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 deadline is 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.

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.”) 

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Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.