Our Fellowship Spans Borders

Calling all writers with very young kids! We want you to write new work and we will help you get it published!

In a time where literary markets are shrinking, Pen Parentis is on the rise. We have reached out across the border to Canada to partner with an up-and-coming new literary magazine called Dreamers Creative Writing who will publish the winning story for the Pen Parentis annual Writing Fellowship for New Parents! Dreamers Creative Writing is dedicated to “heartfelt writing” and makes a perfect publishing partner for our nine-year old Fellowship Program — which opens for entries March 1 through April 17 every year. Check our guidelines for 2019-2020 here. 

Since 2010, we have annually awarded $1000 and a space on our illustrious Manhattan Literary Salon stage to a single, talented writer who has created a new work while caring for a child under ten years of age. See list of previous winners here. A full year of mentorship and publication in Brain, Child Magazine was added to the award in 2016. In addition to the prize money, mentorship, publication and public reading, last year’s fellow, Jennifer Fliss, also received free registration to this year’s AWP19 writers’ conference in Portland, Oregon, where she will enjoy the copious panels and networking with 12,000 other writers and writing professionals.

This past winter, our longtime publishing partner, Brain, Child Magazine, was suddenly sold to Nonfiction Magazine and announced they could no longer publish the winning short story because they would exclusively be publishing nonfiction.

Our founder, M. M. De Voe, took it as an opportunity: “We love Brain, Child, but it is always exciting to forge a new partnership. Dreamers already has a strong following after only a year of programs. In addition to their beautiful magazine and anthology, they offer workshops similar to our other wonderful Canadian partner, OneLitPlace, and additionally they help connect writers with editors. We hope that being internationally published will bring a wider readership and more attention to the talents of our next Fellow. We are always pushing the envelope for writers who have children. It is wonderful to find a non-parenting magazine eager to to publish the winning story for 2019-2020. Notably, Dreamers and Brain, Child are serious about paying their contributors, a practice we highly esteem in all magazines, since professionalism is one of our four core values.” (The others are community, balance, and inclusion.)

Dreamers will publish the winning short story online, then in print format in their magazine, and finally will include it in their annual print anthology which will be available in both print and electronic format. GREAT news for writers who have a child under ten years old! The competition is completely blind and entirely talent-based. Guidelines can be found at penparentis.org/guidelines. Winners list announced on our website August 1, 2019.