‘Tis the season of giving (and getting) so I’d like to say a couple words about scholarships to the San Francisco Writers Conference.
GETTING
We have three scholarships this year that cover the entire cost of registration to the best writers conference in the land. Ours! One scholarship has already been awarded: The Catherine Coulter Scholarship, from our very generous Friday luncheon keynote speaker who has written more than 80 thriller and romance novels, almost all of them New York Times bestsellers. Catherine asked entrants to write 1200 words on this trigger scenario: You wake up in a strange room, all alone, and you have no recollection of how you got there. Someone knocks on the door.
Then since the conference is located in the high tech capital of the world, it makes a lot of sense that generous Eli and Jamie Potter of Coinbase and Autodesk are sponsoring the Blockchain and Crypto Currency Scholarship. They are asking scholarship entrants to write 2000 words on this scenario: Kate and Jacob stumble upon 50,000 Bitcoin while traveling to X country. They decide to use it to build Y, that would benefit writers and the world in way Z. How fun! Bitcoin and blockchain could be as transformative to publishing as self-publishing was a decade ago, so this scholarship could really get your creative and business juices flowing. Plus you will get to meet Eli at the conference. The deadline for entries is December 10th, so get going.
And finally, SFWC’s director, Laurie McLean, put her money where her values are and created The Director’s Scholarship giving diverse voices a chance to be heard. Have breakfast with Laurie at the conference, where your full registration fee is covered, by writing 500 words or less on why your writing, based on your personal experience as a member of a marginalized group, would be a great addition to the #ownvoices conversation. The deadline for entries is December 31st.
So get the word out to any writers you know. They can attend the 2019 San Francisco Writers Conference FOR FREE if they win one of these scholarships!
GIVING
Did you know you can sponsor a scholarship in your name or in the name of someone special by donating $1,000 or more to our 501c3 nonprofit corporation? The value is $1,250 and you’ll be mentioned in our printed program and marketing materials. Plus it’s tax deductible. Maybe you need a year-end tax deduction. What better way to support the world of writing than by creating your own scholarship. We’ll help you craft a scholarship you’d be proud of. It’s not too late to create a scholarship for our 2019 conference.
And if you don’t want to create a whole scholarship, please consider donating to our general scholarship fund in any amount you choose. For example, we sponsor scholarships for local high school students every year, and the amount of students we can bring in on the Saturday of the conference each year depends on this general fund. You can donate at https://sfwriters.org/donate
To find out more about the San Francisco Writers Conference scholarships, please visit our web page at https://sfwriters.org/scholarships and if you’re interested, contact Scholarship Director Barbara Santos at [email protected].