I got an arts grant! + new book announcement

People have been telling me I should apply for arts grants for years. Want to know why I didn’t?

I was scared.

Over the years, I’d internalized various messages about how only visual and performing arts were “real” art and the people who made visual and performing art were “real” artists. Of course, that’s ridiculous. It’s called “literary arts” for a reason. However, a lot of arts grants I found specifically said visual and performing arts only, so I never applied.

I was skeptical when a friend recommended I apply for the Greater Columbus Arts Council grant. The last thing I wanted was to spend all this time and energy on an application only to be told I wasn’t the kind of artist they were looking for. That’s why I’m so happy to be proven wrong! The process was simple and straightforward, and it’s so evident that GCAC cares about artists of every kind and at every level in this city. They answered all my questions and I got the sense they really wanted me to succeed.

And with GCAC’s help, I did! I got the grant!

You’re probably wondering what I’ll use the funds for, so I’m thrilled to report that I’ve been working on a poetry collection about my grandparents immigrating to the US from Palestine, my memories with them, and the struggles of my people under occupation. I started writing poems about all this a couple of months ago and after about the twelfth one, I realized I was inadvertently working on a collection.

The funds from the Greater Columbus Arts Council will allow me to hire an Arab-American developmental poetry editor to edit the poems individually and help me order them into a manuscript, then pay the submission fees to send the manuscript to contests. If I win or place in those contests, I could be offered a publishing contract for the manuscript.

I’ve got $1700 and one year to make it happen. Stay tuned for updates and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to GCAC!