Helen McCloy Scholarship

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What Is It? The Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for Mystery Writing seeks to nurture talent in mystery writing—in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting.

Who May Apply? The scholarship is open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents only. Membership in Mystery Writers of America is not required to apply. The McCloy Scholarship is intended for serious aspiring mystery writers who wish to improve their writing skills. Applicants should not have received monetary compensation for novels, short stories, non-fiction, screenplays or play scripts in the crime-writing genre.

How Shall the Scholarship Be Used? The scholarship shall be used to offset tuition and fees for writing workshops, writing seminars, or university/college-level writing programs taking place in the U.S. in summer, fall or winter of 2018 or early spring 2019. Applicants must select a specific writing class/workshop/seminar to which scholarship funds would be applied.  To be eligible, the chosen writing program must require the applicant to produce writing and to have writing critiqued. Writing conferences featuring only panels and agent conferences are not eligible.

 What Is the Scholarship Amount? MWA will present two scholarships for up to $500 each. Scholarship checks are issued in late Spring and are made out jointly to scholarship winners and their chosen educational institutions.

 Submission Details Applicants are required to submit:

* ONE Scholarship application form, completed – 2018 McCloy Application Form

* ONE copy of the official description of the writing class/workshop/program (from college catalog, workshop brochure, or other.)

* One copy of a 300- to 500-word essay explaining the applicant’s interest in mystery writing

* One copy of a sample of mystery writing for judging: either a synopsis and 3 chapters from a novel, or 3 short stories, or 3 short nonfiction pieces, or 1 screenplay or 1 play script

The scholarship committee may also require a letter of acceptance and/or syllabus or other documentation from the writing class/workshop/seminar to be attended.

Email all materials in one complete submission package to: 
 McCloy.MWA@gmail.com
Put “submission” in the subject line of the email.

Application Deadline All applications must be postmarked by February 28, 2018. 

No late applications or emailed applications will be accepted.

Questions? For individual answers and a copy of scholarship FAQs and submission tips (recommended), e-mail the scholarship committee at:   McCloy.MWA@gmail.com