Financial Assistance for AWA Training

Applications are currently open for financial assistance for the training dates June 2025–March 2026.

All applications will be considered at once and aid for the year will be awarded after that. The application form for 2025 AWA Training Scholarship Applications closes on March 1, 2025.

Please reserve these dates in case you are granted an interview: Friday Saturday Sunday March 14, 15, 16th, 12pm-6pm EST (click here to convert to your time zone).

AWA is not an endowed non-profit. We have limited ability to offer financial aid. However, we hope to include those writers whose voices traditional institutions have ignored, neglected or excluded. To fulfill our mission, we must nurture economic and racial diversity in our community.

In our 2024 training season, we awarded 12 scholarships from the following funds:

  • The Kate Hymes Scholarship. We reserve space in every training for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) trainees who need financial assistance.
  • The Lane Goddard Scholarship. These funds go to others who need aid to attend the training and who have transformative aspirations for themselves or their intended workshop populations.
  • The Mary Simmerling Survivors’s Voices Scholarship: To support training and workshops for survivors of sexual violence. Funded by an initial $500 donation in honour of Thomas Epting’s mother, Cynthia Hanegan, who did not survive to tell her story.
RECEIVING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

If you’re interested in receiving aid, please submit the standard application and then fill out our financial aid request form by March 1, 2025. If you’re not able to afford the $500 deposit before knowing about aid, we understand. You can navigate to our Event Calendar and apply for the training of your first choice there, choosing “pay offline” to submit your application without a payment. Please be thorough in your financial aid application because the financial aid committee will not see the standard application for training. 

PROVIDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

If you’d like to support our efforts to provide financial assistance, we welcome and celebrate your donations! Thank you for your generosity.